| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "Must be a very healthy child," said Mrs. Lee, who had had
experience with crying babies.
"Well, she has it, anyhow," said Mrs. Glynn.
Right upon the announcement came proof. The beautiful door of
the old colonial mansion opposite was thrown open, and clumsy and
cautious motion was evident. Presently a tall, slender woman
came down the path between the box borders, pushing a
baby-carriage. It was undoubtedly a very old carriage. It must
have dated back to the fifties, if not the forties. It was made
of wood, with a leather buggy-top, and was evidently very heavy.
Abby eyed it shrewdly. "If I am not mistaken," said she, "that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: incongruous features into one, and the lamps begin to
glitter along the street, and faint lights to burn in the
high windows across the valley - the feeling grows upon
you that this also is a piece of nature in the most
intimate sense; that this profusion of eccentricities,
this dream in masonry and living rock, is not a drop-
scene in a theatre, but a city in the world of every-day
reality, connected by railway and telegraph-wire with all
the capitals of Europe, and inhabited by citizens of the
familiar type, who keep ledgers, and attend church, and
have sold their immortal portion to a daily paper. By
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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 Hamlet by William Shakespeare: For nature cressant does not grow alone,
In thewes and Bulke: but as his Temple waxes,
The inward seruice of the Minde and Soule
Growes wide withall. Perhaps he loues you now,
And now no soyle nor cautell doth besmerch
The vertue of his feare: but you must feare
His greatnesse weigh'd, his will is not his owne;
For hee himselfe is subiect to his Birth:
Hee may not, as vnuallued persons doe,
Carue for himselfe; for, on his choyce depends
The sanctity and health of the whole State.
Hamlet |
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 A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: in bread and all kinds of provisions; and there is great care taken
to provide enough, because, if the guest complains, the town is
obliged to pay double the value of what they ought to have
furnished. This practice is so well established that a stranger
goes into a house of one he never saw with the same familiarity and
assurance of welcome as into that of an intimate friend or near
relation; a custom very convenient, but which gives encouragement to
great numbers of vagabonds throughout the kingdom.
There is no money in Abyssinia, except in the eastern provinces,
where they have iron coin: but in the chief provinces all commerce
is managed by exchange. Their chief trade consists in provisions,
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