| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Glasses by Henry James: and by appearing to recognise me and smile. She leaned back in her
chair in luxurious ease: I had from the first become aware that
the way she fingered her pearls was a sharp image of the wedded
state. Nothing of old had seemed wanting to her assurance, but I
hadn't then dreamed of the art with which she would wear that
assurance as a married woman. She had taken him when everything
had failed; he had taken her when she herself had done so. His
embarrassed eyes confessed it all, confessed the deep peace he
found in it. They only didn't tell me why he had not written to
me, nor clear up as yet a minor obscurity. Flora after a while
again lifted the glass from the ledge of the box and elegantly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: term dessert seems restricted to the last course of fruits. During
the dinner there are always long strips of damask all round the
table which are removed before the dessert is put on, and there is
no brushing of crumbs. You may not care for all this, but the
housekeepers may. I had Mr. Greville the other side of me, who
seemed much surprised that I, an American, should know the "Prayer
for Indifference," which he doubted if twenty persons in England
read in these modern days.
It is a great mystery to me yet how people get to know each other in
London. Persons talk to you whom you do not know, for no one is
introduced, as a general rule. I have sometimes quite an
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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 Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: He jumped out, and she watched him going towards town. Such a
little thing, it was! But not even a dog "called her nearest and
best."
Let us be silent; the story of the night is not for us to read.
Do you think that He, who in the far, dim Life holds the worlds
in His hand, knew or cared how alone the child was? What if she
wrung her thin hands, grew sick with the slow, mad, solitary
tears?--was not the world to save, as Knowles said?
He, too, had been alone; He had come unto His own, and His own
received him not: so, while the struggling world rested,
unconscious, in infinite calm of right, He came close to her with
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: Juana sprang to the door of her children's room and closed it; then
she returned.
"Your sons must hear nothing," she said. "With whom have you fought?"
"Montefiore," he replied.
"Ah!" she said with a sigh, "the only man you had the right to kill."
"There were many reasons why he should die by my hand. But I can't
lose time--Money, money! for God's sake, money! I may be pursued. We
did not fight. I--I killed him."
"Killed him!" she cried, "how?"
"Why, as one kills anything. He stole my whole fortune and I took it
back, that's all. Juana, now that everything is quiet you must go down
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