| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When a Man Marries by Mary Roberts Rinehart: excruciatingly funny. I quite got a headache from laughing;
indeed I laughed until I found I was crying, and then I knew I
was going to have an attack of strangulated emotion, called
hysteria. So I got up and turned on all the lights, and bathed my
face with cologne, and felt better.
But I did not go to sleep. When the hall clock chimed two, I
discovered I was hungry. I had had nothing since luncheon, and
even the thirst following the South American goulash was gone.
There was probably something to eat in the pantry, and if there
was not, I was quite equal to going to the basement.
As it happened, however, I found a very orderly assortment of
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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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: stand in his integrity before wife, children, servants, and neighbors.
And in the first place, we take the plainest meaning of this
commandment according to the words (Thou shalt not bear false witness),
as pertaining to the public courts of justice, where a poor innocent
man is accused and oppressed by false witnesses in order to be punished
in his body, property, or honor.
Now, this appears as if it were of little concern to us at present; but
with the Jews it was quite a common and ordinary matter. For the people
were organized under an excellent and regular government; and where
there is still such a government, instances of this sin will not be
wanting. The cause of it is that where judges, burgomasters, princes,
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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 Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: meant to spend his afternoon, he had answered
paradoxically: "Oh, I think for a change I'll just save it
instead of spending it--" and once, when she and May
had had to go on a long-postponed round of afternoon
calls, he had confessed to having lain all the afternoon
under a rock on the beach below the house.
"Newland never seems to look ahead," Mrs. Welland
once ventured to complain to her daughter; and
May answered serenely: "No; but you see it doesn't
matter, because when there's nothing particular to do
he reads a book."
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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 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Once more she was bound and sentries placed before the
door of her prison; but before Werper left her he
whispered words of cheer into her ear. Then he left,
and made his way back to the tent of Mohammed Beyd.
He had been wondering how long it would be before the
raiders who had ridden out with Achmet Zek would return
with the murdered body of their chief, and the more he
thought upon the matter the greater his fears became,
that without accomplices his plan would fail.
What, even, if he got away from the camp in safety
before any returned with the true story of his guilt--
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
