| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: these musings. How could she meet her younger sister's eye without
betraying what had happened? She felt as though a visible glory
lay on her, and she was glad that dusk had fallen when Evelina
entered. But her fears were superfluous. Evelina, always self-
absorbed, had of late lost all interest in the simple happenings of
the shop, and Ann Eliza, with mingled mortification and relief,
perceived that she was in no danger of being cross-questioned as to
the events of the afternoon. She was glad of this; yet there was
a touch of humiliation in finding that the portentous secret in her
bosom did not visibly shine forth. It struck her as dull, and even
slightly absurd, of Evelina not to know at last that they were
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: 85 Sloops, bombs,
and fireships, one 2,000 170,000
with another, _________
Cost 3,266,786
Remains for guns, _________ 233,214
_________
3,500,000
No country on the globe is so happily situated, or so internally capable
of raising a fleet as America. Tar, timber, iron, and cordage are her
natural produce. We need go abroad for nothing. Whereas the Dutch,
who make large profits by hiring out their ships of war to the Spaniards
Common Sense |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: with her. She was indefatigable. She went to market herself, she
cooked and dusted and swept, and never missed mass of a morning. To
give some idea of the domestic life of the household, it will be
enough to remark that the father and son never ate fruit till it was
beginning to spoil, because Mlle. Cadot always brought out anything
that would not keep. No one in the house ever tasted the luxury of new
bread, and all the fast days in the calendar were punctually observed.
The gardener was put on rations like a soldier; the elderly Valideh
always kept an eye upon him. And she, for her part, was so
deferentially treated, that she took her meals with the family, and in
consequence was continually trotting to and fro between the kitchen
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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 Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: hands towards her son. Michael gazed at her as a son
would gaze at his mother, when it is for the last time. The
tears, which his pride in vain endeavored to subdue, welling
up from his heart, gathered under his eyelids, and volatiliz-
ing on the cornea, had saved his sight. The vapor formed
by his tears interposing between the glowing saber and his
eyeballs, had been sufficient to annihilate the action of the
heat. A similar effect is produced, when a workman
smelter, after dipping his hand in vapor, can with impunity
hold it over a stream of melted iron.
Michael had immediately understood the danger in which
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