| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: X
They had dinner in the Moorish Grillroom of the Hotel Sedgwick. Somewhere,
somehow, they seemed to have gathered in two other comrades: a manufacturer of
fly-paper and a dentist. They all drank whisky from tea-cups, and they were
humorous, and never listened to one another, except when W. A. Rogers "kidded"
the Italian waiter.
"Say, Gooseppy," he said innocently, "I want a couple o' fried elephants'
ears."
"Sorry, sir, we haven't any."
"Huh? No elephants' ears? What do you know about that!" Rogers turned to
Babbitt. "Pedro says the elephants' ears are all out!"
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: singer; then there were several artists, and chief among them
Ryabovsky, a very handsome, fair young man of five-and-twenty who
painted genre pieces, animal studies, and landscapes, was
successful at exhibitions, and had sold his last picture for five
hundred roubles. He touched up Olga Ivanovna's sketches, and used
to say she might do something. Then a violoncellist, whose
instrument used to sob, and who openly declared that of all the
ladies of his acquaintance the only one who could accompany him
was Olga Ivanovna; then there was a literary man, young but
already well known, who had written stories, novels, and plays.
Who else? Why, Vassily Vassilyitch, a landowner and amateur
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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 The Economist by Xenophon: works, or of performing those appropriate to woman."[30]
[28] Or, "with approving fingers stamps as noble those diverse
faculties, those superiorities in either sex which God created in
them. Thus for the womean to remain indoors is nobler than to gad
about abroad." {ta kala . . .; kallion . . . aiskhion . . .}--
These words, wich their significant Hellenic connotation, suffer
cruelly in translation.
[29] Or, "maybe in some respect this violation of the order of things,
this lack of discpline on his part." Cf. "Cyrop." VII. ii. 6.
[30] Or, "the works of his wife." For the sentiment cf. Soph. "Oed.
Col." 337 foll.; Herod. ii. 35.
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: instant on his shoulder and went away. The Ordes were not a
demonstrative people.
The journey to New York was at that time very long and disagreeable,
but Orde bore it with his accustomed stoicism. He had visited the
metropolis before, so it was not unfamiliar to him. He was very
glad, however, to get away from the dust and monotony of the
railroad train. The September twilight was just falling. Through
its dusk the street lamps were popping into illumination as the
lamp-lighter made his rapid way. Orde boarded a horse-car and
jingled away down Fourth Avenue. He was pleased at having arrived,
and stretched his legs and filled his lungs twice with so evident an
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