| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: interest and all the commendation that could be requisite, and always
putting forward to prevent Harriet's being obliged to say a word.
This she had been prepared for when she entered the house;
but meant, having once talked him handsomely over, to be no farther
incommoded by any troublesome topic, and to wander at large amongst
all the Mistresses and Misses of Highbury, and their card-parties.
She had not been prepared to have Jane Fairfax succeed Mr. Elton;
but he was actually hurried off by Miss Bates, she jumped away
from him at last abruptly to the Coles, to usher in a letter from
her niece.
"Oh! yes--Mr. Elton, I understand--certainly as to dancing--
Emma |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Before Adam by Jack London: not matter; for I, too, the modern man, have gone back
and lived that early life in the company of my
other-self.
For your convenience, since this is to be no
sociological screed, I shall frame together the
different events into a comprehensive story. For there
is a certain thread of continuity and happening that
runs through all the dreams. There is my friendship
with Lop-Ear, for instance. Also, there is the enmity
of Red-Eye, and the love of the Swift One. Taking it
all in all, a fairly coherent and interesting story I
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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 One Basket by Edna Ferber: prosperous state of Michigan.
That being safely accomplished, there was something grimly
humorous in the trend taken by affairs in the old house on
Calumet. For Eva married. Married well, too, though he was a
great deal older than she. She went off in a hat she had copied
from a French model at Field's, and a suit she had contrived with
a home dressmaker, aided by pressing on the part of the little
tailor in the basement over on Thirty-first Street. It was the
last of that, though. The next time they saw her, she had on a
hat that even she would have despaired of copying, and a suit
that sort of melted into your gaze. She moved to the North Side
One Basket |
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 Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word." (Acts 10:44.)
"And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the
beginning." (Acts 11:15.)
Try to appreciate the force of Paul's argument which is so often repeated in
the Book of Acts. That Book was written for the express purpose of verifying
Paul's assertion, that the Holy Ghost comes upon men, not in response to the
preaching of the Law, but in response to the preaching of the Gospel. When
Peter preached Christ at the first Pentecost, the Holy Ghost fell upon the
hearers, "and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand
souls." Cornelius received the Holy Ghost while Peter was speaking of Christ.
"The Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word." These are actual
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