| 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: if it's measles. Has he been sniffling, James?"
"Has he been sniffling?" Jim threw across at me.
"I hadn't noticed it," I said meekly, while the others choked.
Max came to the rescue. "She refused to eat it," he explained,
distinctly and to everybody, apropos absolutely of nothing. "It
said on the box,'ready cooked and predigested.' She declared she
didn't care who cooked it, but she wanted to know who predigested
it."
As every one wanted to laugh, every one did it then, and under
cover of the noise I caught Anne's eye, and we left the dining
room. The men stayed, and by the very firmness with which the
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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 Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "if a left-handed man, standing in the position of the man in the
picture, should jump from a car, would he be likely to sprain his
right ankle? When a right-handed man prepares for a leap of that
kind, my theory is that he would hold on with his right hand, and
alight at the proper time, on his right foot. Of course - "
"I imagine, although I don't know," interrupted McKnight, "that a
man either ambidextrous or one-armed, jumping from the Washington
Flier, would be more likely to land on his head."
"Anyhow," I interposed, "what difference does it make whether
Sullivan used one hand or the other? One pair of handcuffs will
put both hands out of commission.
The Man in Lower Ten |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: doubtless the glory of the thing was a consolation to him, even
in the crane's gizzard. If Antaeus observed that the battle was
going hard against his little allies, he generally stopped
laughing, and ran with mile-long strides to their assistance,
flourishing his club aloft and shouting at the cranes, who
quacked and croaked, and retreated as fast as they could. Then
the Pygmy army would march homeward in triumph, attributing the
victory entirely to their own valor, and to the warlike skill
and strategy of whomsoever happened to be captain general; and
for a tedious while afterwards, nothing would be heard of but
grand processions, and public banquets, a nd brilliant
Tanglewood Tales |
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 Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield:
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