| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: plainly non-plussed, and Alloway seemed sullen, brooding.
"Jennie," whispered Duane, "that was clever of Mrs. Bland.
We'll keep up the deception. Any day now be ready!"
She pressed close to him, and a barely audible "Hurry!" came
breathing into his ear.
"Good night, Jennie," he said, aloud. "Hope you feel better
to-morrow."
Then he stepped out into the moonlight and spoke. Bland
returned the greeting, and, though he was not amiable, he did
not show resentment.
"Met Jasper as I rode in," said Bland, presently. "He told me
The Lone Star Ranger |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: own would have been under the like circumstances, but he said
nothing. Instead, he quite generously helped the old gentleman into
his cart and took him to town.
When the two arrived, the farmer dutifully summoned a doctor and the
constable and some others of note in the place and repeated how the
old man had fallen and broken his arm, only to exclaim that such a
result was apparently what he had intended. This narrative caused
some strange looks and a little discussion among them, and no one
could think what to do next (aside from fixing the man's arm), when
the constable suddenly remembered that he did not know the man's
name. "Sir," he asked, "have you any identification?"
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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 Walden by Henry David Thoreau: Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of wearing
other than a travelling dress, when she went to meet the
authorities, for she "was now in a civilized country, where ...
people are judged of by their clothes." Even in our democratic New
England towns the accidental possession of wealth, and its
manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor
almost universal respect. But they yield such respect, numerous as
they are, are so far heathen, and need to have a missionary sent to
them. Beside, clothes introduced sewing, a kind of work which you
may call endless; a woman's dress, at least, is never done.
A man who has at length found something to do will not need to
Walden |
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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: as necessary.
I do not think upon the whole that there is more egotism
amongst us than in America; the only difference is, that there it
is enlightened - here it is not. Every American will sacrifice a
portion of his private interests to preserve the rest; we would
fain preserve the whole, and oftentimes the whole is lost.
Everybody I see about me seems bent on teaching his
contemporaries, by precept and example, that what is useful is
never wrong. Will nobody undertake to make them understand how
what is right may be useful? No power upon earth can prevent the
increasing equality of conditions from inclining the human mind
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