| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: recollections."
"I can therefore hardly hope to see her to-day; and it was to her, and
not to you, my dear count, that I came to offer my excuses for the
scene of last night which seemed to annoy her much. Say to her, if you
please, that I will take another opportunity of doing so,--By the
bye," he added, "the election of your friend Sallenauve is making a
devilish talk; the king spoke to me about it this morning, and I did
not please him by repeating the favorable opinion you expressed of the
new deputy last night."
"Well, but you know the tribune is a reef on which reputations are
often wrecked. I am sorry you represented Sallenauve to the king as
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: objects to talk about; could only feel, amazedly, as Mr Ramsay stood
there, how his gaze seemed to fall dolefully over the sunny grass and
discolour it, and cast over the rubicund, drowsy, entirely contented
figure of Mr Carmichael, reading a French novel on a deck-chair, a veil
of crape, as if such an existence, flaunting its prosperity in a world
of woe, were enough to provoke the most dismal thoughts of all. Look
at him, he seemed to be saying, look at me; and indeed, all the time he
was feeling, Think of me, think of me. Ah, could that bulk only be
wafted alongside of them, Lily wished; had she only pitched her easel a
yard or two closer to him; a man, any man, would staunch this effusion,
would stop these lamentations. A woman, she had provoked this horror;
To the Lighthouse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: Alexander learned that for him this youth
was the most dangerous of companions.
One Sunday evening, at Lady Walford's,
Alexander did at last meet Hilda Burgoyne.
Mainhall had told him that she would probably
be there. He looked about for her rather
nervously, and finally found her at the farther
end of the large drawing-room, the centre of
a circle of men, young and old. She was
apparently telling them a story. They were
all laughing and bending toward her. When
Alexander's Bridge |
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 Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: her reading-spectacles and not her far-seeing ones;
besides, her reading spectacles were obscured by
dust and her nephew's face was nearly obliterated.
Also as she shook him his face was not much in evi-
dence. Johnny disliked, naturally, to tell his aunt
Janet that her own sister and brother-in-law were
the parents of such a wicked little boy. He there-
fore kept quiet and submitted to the shaking, mak-
ing himself as limp as a rag. This, however, exas-
perated Aunt Janet, who found herself encumbered
by a dead weight of a little boy to be shaken, and
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