| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: rather neat thing of it.
"That's the interferingest chap I ever see, but I forgive
him and do hope Mrs. March is coming right away," said Hannah,
with an air of relief, when Jo told the good news.
Meg had a quiet rapture, and then brooded over the letter,
while Jo set the sickroom in order, and Hannah `knocked up a
couple of pies in case of company unexpected". A breath of
fresh air seemed to blow through the house, and something better
than sunshine brightened the quiet rooms. Everything appeared
to feel the hopeful change. Beth's bird began to chirp again,
and a half-blown rose was discovered on Amy's bush in the window.
Little Women |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: appear to me far more precious than the most learned German and
French analyses of his character. There is a passage in Jonathan
Edwards' Personal Narrative, about a certain walk that he took in
the fields near his father's house, and the blossoming of the
flowers in the spring, which I would not exchange for the whole of
his dissertation On the Freedom of the Will. And the very best
thing of Charles Darwin's that I know is a bit from a letter to his
wife: "At last I fell asleep," says he, "on the grass, and awoke
with a chorus of birds singing around me, and squirrels running up
the tree, and some woodpeckers laughing; and it was as pleasant and
rural a scene as ever I saw; and I did not care one penny how any
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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 A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: rounded by a wall of rubble-stone, there stood
another miserable hovel, smaller and older than
the first and all askew. The shore descended
precipitously to the sea, almost from its very
walls, and down below, with incessant murmur,
plashed the dark-blue waves. The moon gazed
softly upon the watery element, restless but
obedient to it, and I was able by its light to
distinguish two ships lying at some distance
from the shore, their black rigging motionless
and standing out, like cobwebs, against the pale
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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 Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: by cries, shouts, and screams, and the noise of a terrible
struggle, and in the midst of it all, a most awful hissing,
which went right through his ears like a rough saw.
Running towards the tuft of trees, he beheld the head and fiery
eyes of an immense serpent or dragon, with the widest jaws that
ever a dragon had, and a vast many rows of horribly sharp
teeth. Before Cadmus could reach the spot, this pitiless
reptile had killed his poor companions, and was busily
devouring them, making but a mouthful of each man.
It appears that the fountain of water was enchanted, and that
the dragon had been set to guard it, so that no mortal might
Tanglewood Tales |
