| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: In order to understand the Tessie of today one would have to know
the Tessie of six months ago--Tessie the impudent, the
life-loving. Tessie Golden could say things to the
escapement-room foreman that anyone else would have been fired
for. Her wide mouth was capable of glorious insolences.
Whenever you heard shrieks of laughter from the girls' washroom
at noon you knew that Tessie was holding forth to an admiring
group. She was a born mimic; audacious, agile, and with the gift
of burlesque. The autumn that Angie Hatton came home from Europe
wearing the first tight skirt that Chippewa had ever seen, Tessie
gave an imitation of that advanced young woman's progress down
One Basket |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: have been surprised, for he had expected the worst;
but that she should love him! Oh God, had his over
wrought nerves turned his poor head? Was he dream-
ing this thing, only to awaken to the cold and awful
truth!
But these warm arms about his neck, the sweet per-
fume of the breath that fanned his cheek; these were
no dream!
"Think thee what thou art saying, Bertrade?" he
cried. "Dost forget that I be a low born knave, knowing
not my own mother and questioning even the identity
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: bowler, one hardly looks further; the expectation of finding an
acquaintance under it is so vain. In this instance, I did look
further, fortunately, though in doing so I was compelled to notice
that the bowler was not lifted in answer to my salutation. Of no
importance in itself, of course, but betraying in Armour a certain
lack of observation. I felt the Departmental Head crumble in me,
however, as I recognized him, and I pulled the mare up in a manner
which she plainly resented. It was my opportunity to do cautiously
and delicately what I had omitted the afternoon before; but my
recollection is that I was very clumsy.
I said something about the dust, and he said something about the
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: See, rather, under sultrier skies
What vegetable Londons rise,
And teem, and suffer without sound:
Or in your tranquil garden ground,
Contented, in the falling gloom,
Saunter and see the roses bloom.
That these might live, what thousands died!
All day the cruel hoe was plied;
The ambulance barrow rolled all day;
Your wife, the tender, kind, and gay,
Donned her long gauntlets, caught the spud,
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