| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: "If I allowed my son to put his hand to the lips of my cash box
whenever he had a mind, he would plunge it deep into the vitals, he
would take all I have!" cried old Sechard. "That is the way with
children; they eat up their parents' purse. What did I do myself, eh?
_I_ never cost my parents a farthing. Your printing office is standing
idle. The rats and the mice do all the printing that is done in
it. . . . You have a pretty face; I am very fond of you; you are a
careful, hard-working woman; but that son of mine!--Do you know what
David is? I'll tell you--he is a scholar that will never do a stroke
of work! If I had reared him, as I was reared myself, without knowing
his letters, and if I had made a 'bear' of him, like his father before
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: She shook her head at him.
"You do help," she replied.
>From Gerald at the club, Orde sought more intimate news of what was
going on. For several days, however, the young man absented himself
from his usual haunts. It was only at the end of the week that Orde
succeeded in finding him.
"No," Gerald answered his greeting, "I haven't been around much.
I've been sticking pretty close home."
Little by little, Orde's eager questions drew out the truth of the
situation. Mrs. Bishop had shut herself up in a blind and
incredible obstinacy, whence she sallied with floods of complaints,
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: everybody agreed that they had never seen a handsomer couple than
the bride and bridegroom. They were more than handsome, however -
they were happy. Never for a single moment did Lord Arthur regret
all that he had suffered for Sybil's sake, while she, on her side,
gave him the best things a woman can give to any man - worship,
tenderness, and love. For them romance was not killed by reality.
They always felt young.
Some years afterwards, when two beautiful children had been born to
them, Lady Windermere came down on a visit to Alton Priory, a
lovely old place, that had been the Duke's wedding present to his
son; and one afternoon as she was sitting with Lady Arthur under a
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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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: little dark head, pushing above her white fur like a flower through snow.
She would remember for ever. It even gave her a pang to see her cousin
Laurie throw away the wisps of tissue paper he pulled from the fastenings
of his new gloves. She would like to have kept those wisps as a keepsake,
as a remembrance. Laurie leaned forward and put his hand on Laura's knee.
"Look here, darling," he said. "The third and the ninth as usual. Twig?"
Oh, how marvellous to have a brother! In her excitement Leila felt that if
there had been time, if it hadn't been impossible, she couldn't have helped
crying because she was an only child, and no brother had ever said "Twig?"
to her; no sister would ever say, as Meg said to Jose that moment, "I've
never known your hair go up more successfully than it has to-night!"
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