| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: But the priest had tied crape round the chalice of the crucifix,
having no other way of marking the mass as a funeral service; it was
as if God himself had been in mourning. The man suddenly noticed this,
and the sight appeared to call up some overwhelming memory, for great
drops of sweat stood out on his broad forehead.
Then the four silent actors in the scene looked mysteriously at one
another; and their souls in emulation seemed to stir and communicate
the thoughts within them until all were melted into one feeling of awe
and pity. It seemed to them that the royal martyr whose remains had
been consumed with quicklime, had been called up by their yearning and
now stood, a shadow in their midst, in all the majesty of a king. They
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Martians melted like mist into the spacious doorways of the
nearby buildings, until, in less than three minutes, the entire
cavalcade of chariots, mastodons and mounted warriors was nowhere
to be seen.
Sola and I had entered a building upon the front of the city,
in fact, the same one in which I had had my encounter
with the apes, and, wishing to see what had caused the sudden
retreat, I mounted to an upper floor and peered from the
window out over the valley and the hills beyond; and there
I saw the cause of their sudden scurrying to cover. A huge
craft, long, low, and gray-painted, swung slowly over the
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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 An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: No doubt the assembled stomachs were impatient; for on the appearance
of the register of mortgages--who had no defect except that of having
married for her money an intolerable old woman, and of perpetrating
endless puns, at which he was the first to laugh--the gentle murmur by
which such late-comers are welcomed arose. While awaiting the official
announcement of dinner, the company were sauntering on the terrace
above the river, and gazing at the water-plants, the mosaic of the
currents, and the various pretty details of the houses clustering
across the river, their old wooden galleries, their mouldering window-
frames, their little gardens where clothes were drying, the cabinet-
maker's shop,--in short, the many details of a small community to
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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 Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: water, Rufe proposed, if I had no objections, to "jump the
claim."
Of course, I had no objection. But I was filled with wonder.
If all he wanted was the wood and iron, what, in the name of
fortune, was to prevent him taking them? "His right there
was none to dispute." He might lay hands on all to-morrow,
as the wild cats had laid hands upon our knives and hatchet.
Besides, was this mass of heavy mining plant worth
transportation? If it was, why had not the rightful owners
carted it away? If it was, would they not preserve their
title to these movables, even after they had lost their title
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