| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: standing behind his chair until the little boy bent over and spat on his
brother's shaven head.
"Oh, weh! oh, weh!"
The Child-Who-Was-Tired pushed and pulled them apart, muffled them into
their coats, and drove them out of the house.
"Hurry, hurry! the second bell's rung," she urged, knowing perfectly well
she was telling a story, and rather exulting in the fact. She washed up
the breakfast things, then went down to the cellar to look out the potatoes
and beetroot.
Such a funny, cold place the coal cellar! With potatoes banked on one
corner, beetroot in an old candle box, two tubs of sauerkraut, and a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: St. Petersburg, he ran over Holland but he parted company with the
aforesaid thirty thousand francs by living as if he had thirty
thousand a year. Everywhere he found the same supreme de volaille, the
same aspics, and French wines; he heard French spoken wherever he went
--in short, he never got away from Paris. He ought, of course, to have
tried to deprave his disposition, to fence himself in triple brass, to
get rid of his illusions, to learn to hear anything said without a
blush, and to master the inmost secrets of the Powers.--Pooh! with a
good deal of trouble he equipped himself with four languages--that is
to say, he laid in a stock of four words for one idea. Then he came
back, and certain tedious dowagers, styled 'conquests' abroad, were
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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 Whirligigs by O. Henry: my bare hand at the lower jaws of wolves about two
miles away. Sam was a hardened person of about twenty-
five, with a reputation for going home in the dark with
perfect equanimity, though often with reluctance.
Over in the Creek Nation was a family bearing the
name of Tatum. I was told that the Durkees and Tatums
had been feuding for years. Several of each family had
bitten the grass, and it was expected that more Nebuchad-
nezzars would follow. A younger generation of each family
was growing up, and the grass was keeping pace with them.
But I gathered that they had fought fairly; that they had
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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 Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: to make him angry. The obvious thing is to avoid trouble, unless
there is a good reason to seek it. In that one evidences the
lion's good sense, but not his lack of courage. That quality has
not been called upon at all.
But if the sportsman had done one of two or three things, I am
quite sure he would have had a taste of our friend's mettle. If
he had shot at and even grazed the beast; if he had happened upon
him where an exit was not obvious; or IF HE HAD EVEN FOLLOWED THE
LION UNTIL THE LATTER HAD BECOME TIRED OF THE ANNOYANCE,
he would very soon have discovered that Leo is not all good nature,
and that once on his courage will take him in against any odds.
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