| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: where the Ericsons' road branched across a dry sand creek that
wound about the foot of the hill.
"That's the old lady's place. Want I should drive in?" "No,
thank you. I'll roll out here. Much obliged to you. Good
night."
His passenger stepped down over the front wheel, and the old
man drove on reluctantly, looking back as if he would like to see
how the stranger would be received.
As Nils was crossing the dry creek he heard the restive
tramp of a horse coming toward him down the hill. Instantly he
flashed out of the road and stood behind a thicket of wild plum
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: great reader, and he knew what other books were like. It
must, at least, have crossed his mind that some one might
ultimately decipher the manuscript, and he himself, with all
his pains and pleasures, be resuscitated in some later day;
and the thought, although discouraged, must have warmed his
heart. He was not such an ass, besides, but he must have
been conscious of the deadly explosives, the gun-cotton and
the giant powder, he was hoarding in his drawer. Let some
contemporary light upon the journal, and Pepys was plunged
for ever in social and political disgrace. We can trace the
growth of his terrors by two facts. In 1660, while the Diary
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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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: SOPHOCLES.
Who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
JOB.
THE DONKEY, THE PACK, AND THE PACK-SADDLE
IN a little place called Le Monastier, in a pleasant highland
valley fifteen miles from Le Puy, I spent about a month of fine
days. Monastier is notable for the making of lace, for
drunkenness, for freedom of language, and for unparalleled
political dissension. There are adherents of each of the four
French parties - Legitimists, Orleanists, Imperialists, and
Republicans - in this little mountain-town; and they all hate,
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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 The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: The man at the wall moved when he heard this terrible accusation.
But the detective took up his revolver again. "Be quiet there!" he
called, with a look such as he might have thrown at an angry dog.
Gyuri stood quiet again but his eyes shot flames and great drops
stood out on his forehead.
"Now go on, friend Cardillac," continued the detective. "We were
talking about Red Betty."
"I strangled her. She did not even know she was dying. She was
such a weak old woman, it really couldn't have hurt her."
"No, certainly not," said Muller soothingly, for he saw that the
thought that his victim might have suffered was beginning to make
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