| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: of transmitting the character of every new acquaintance,
nor a detail of every interesting conversation that Bath
might produce. Everything indeed relative to this
important journey was done, on the part of the Morlands,
with a degree of moderation and composure, which seemed
rather consistent with the common feelings of common life,
than with the refined susceptibilities, the tender
emotions which the first separation of a heroine
from her family ought always to excite. Her father,
instead of giving her an unlimited order on his banker,
or even putting an hundred pounds bank-bill into her hands,
Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: observances at a time in which men are becoming more equal, would
soon find itself reduced to a band of fanatical zealots in the
midst of an infidel people.
[Footnote a: In all religions there are some ceremonies which are
inherent in the substance of the faith itself, and in these
nothing should, on any account, be changed. This is especially
the case with Roman Catholicism, in which the doctrine and the
form are frequently so closely united as to form one point of
belief.]
I anticipate the objection, that as all religions have
general and eternal truths for their object, they cannot thus
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "I could eat a dozen of dem minnows," announced the
mucker, and he cast again and again, until in twenty minutes
he had a goodly mess of plump, shiny trout on the grass
beside him.
With his pocketknife he cleaned and scaled them, and then
between two rocks he built a fire and passing sticks through
the bodies of his catch roasted them all. They had neither salt,
nor pepper, nor butter, nor any other viand than the fish, but
it seemed to the girl that never in her life had she tasted so
palatable a meal, nor had it occurred to her until the odor of
the cooking fish filled her nostrils that no food had passed her
The Mucker |
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 Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: light upon the processes of fertilization through his startling experiments
with simple sodium chlorides and magnesium solutions on low forms of marine
life.
It was in their undergraduate days, however, in the midst of their profoundest
plunges into the mysteries of organic chemistry, that Doris Van Benschoten
entered into their lives. Lloyd met her first, but within twenty-four hours
Paul saw to it that he also made her acquaintance. Of course, they fell in
love with her, and she became the only thing in life worth living for. They
wooed her with equal ardor and fire, and so intense became their struggle for
her that half the student-body took to wagering wildly on the result. Even
"old" Moss, one day, after an astounding demonstration in his private
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