| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: The older one, who wore shoes and stockings, came to the door to admit me.
She was a buxom girl with dark hair and eyes, calm and self-possessed.
`Won't you come in? Mother will be here in a minute.'
Before I could sit down in the chair she offered me, the miracle
happened; one of those quiet moments that clutch the heart,
and take more courage than the noisy, excited passages in life.
Antonia came in and stood before me; a stalwart, brown woman,
flat-chested, her curly brown hair a little grizzled.
It was a shock, of course. It always is, to meet people
after long years, especially if they have lived as much and
as hard as this woman had. We stood looking at each other.
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: neither sex was in evening dress.
The interior of the building is simple--severely so; but
there is no occasion for color and decoration, since the people
sit in the dark. The auditorium has the shape of a keystone,
with the stage at the narrow end. There is an aisle on each
side, but no aisle in the body of the house. Each row of seats
extends in an unbroken curve from one side of the house to the
other. There are seven entrance doors on each side of the
theater and four at the butt, eighteen doors to admit and emit
1,650 persons. The number of the particular door by which you
are to enter the house or leave it is printed on your ticket, and
What is Man? |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: sent its light all the way out to the horizon and exhibited
far-off vessels, that reeled and tossed and looked as if
wandering without a guide. But this was not so startling as
what it showed in the foreground.
There drifted heavily upon the waves, within full view from the
shore, moving parallel to it, yet gradually approaching, an
uncouth shape that seemed a vessel and yet not a vessel; two
stunted masts projected above, and below there could be read,
in dark letters that apparently swayed and trembled in the wan
lightning, as the thing moved on,
BRENTON'S REEF.
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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 Ursula by Honore de Balzac: "You are going?" said Ursula, springing towards them from the
pavilion.
"Yes, mademoiselle, to deserve you. Therefore the more eager I am to
go, the more I prove to you my affection."
"This is the 3rd of October," she said, looking at him with infinite
tenderness; "do not go till after the 19th."
"Yes," said the old man, "we will celebrate Saint-Savinien's day."
"Good-by, then," cried the young man. "I must spend this week in
Paris, to take the preliminary steps, buy books and mathematical
instruments, and try to conciliate the minister and get the best terms
that I can for myself."
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