| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: The station-master looks at a form and says indignantly:
"Are you Malahin, eight vanloads? You must pay a rouble a van and
six roubles and twenty kopecks for stamps. You have no stamps.
Total, fourteen roubles, twenty kopecks."
Receiving the money, he writes something down, dries it with
sand, and, hurriedly snatching up a bundle of forms, goes quickly
out of the room.
At ten o'clock in the evening Malahin gets an answer from the
traffic manager: "Give precedence."
Reading the telegram through, the old man winks significantly
and, very well pleased with himself, puts it in his pocket.
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: martello-like islet of the gaol breaks the lagoon. Vassal chiefs
with tribute, neighbour monarchs come a-roving, might here sail in,
view with surprise these extensive public works, and be awed by
these mouths of silent cannon. It was impossible to see the place
and not to fancy it designed for pageantry. But the elaborate
theatre then stood empty; the royal house deserted, its doors and
windows gaping; the whole quarter of the town immersed in silence.
On the opposite bank of the canal, on a roofed stage, an ancient
gentleman slept publicly, sole visible inhabitant; and beyond on
the lagoon a canoe spread a striped lateen, the sole thing moving.
The canal is formed on the south by a pier or causeway with a
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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 Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: "Tom Sawyer, the Black Avenger of the Spanish
Main. Name your names."
"Huck Finn the Red-Handed, and Joe Harper the
Terror of the Seas." Tom had furnished these titles,
from his favorite literature.
"'Tis well. Give the countersign."
Two hoarse whispers delivered the same awful word
simultaneously to the brooding night:
"BLOOD!"
Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let
himself down after it, tearing both skin and clothes
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
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 Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum: life by means of a magical powder contained in an old pepper-box?
So he ceased to reproach himself, and began to think how he might yet remedy
the deficiencies of Jack's weak joints.
While thus engaged they came to the edge of a wood, and the boy sat down to
rest upon an old sawhorse that some woodcutter had left there.
"Why don't you sit down?" he asked the Pumpkinhead.
"Won't it strain my joints?" inquired the other.
"Of course not. It'll rest them," declared the boy.
So Jack tried to sit down; but as soon as he bent his joints farther than
usual they gave way altogether, and he came clattering to the ground with
such a crash that Tip feared he was entirely ruined.
The Marvelous Land of Oz |
