| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: Antonia looked about, quite distracted. `Yes, child, but why don't we take
him into the parlour, now that we've got a nice parlour for company?'
The daughter laughed indulgently, and took my hat from me.
`Well, you're here, now, mother, and if you talk here, Yulka and I
can listen, too. You can show him the parlour after while.'
She smiled at me, and went back to the dishes, with her sister.
The little girl with the rag doll found a place on the bottom step
of an enclosed back stairway, and sat with her toes curled up,
looking out at us expectantly.
`She's Nina, after Nina Harling,' Antonia explained.
`Ain't her eyes like Nina's? I declare, Jim, I loved you children
My Antonia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: tears when I hear them. And I observe that many others are affected in the
same manner. I have heard Pericles and other great orators, and I thought
that they spoke well, but I never had any similar feeling; my soul was not
stirred by them, nor was I angry at the thought of my own slavish state.
But this Marsyas has often brought me to such a pass, that I have felt as
if I could hardly endure the life which I am leading (this, Socrates, you
will admit); and I am conscious that if I did not shut my ears against him,
and fly as from the voice of the siren, my fate would be like that of
others,--he would transfix me, and I should grow old sitting at his feet.
For he makes me confess that I ought not to live as I do, neglecting the
wants of my own soul, and busying myself with the concerns of the
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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 Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: years I have been studying the hearts of criminals like yourself.
But there are things I do not understand about this case and it
interests me very much."
Langen had wiped the drops from his forehead and he now turned on
Muller a face that seemed made of bronze. There was but one
expression on it, that of cold scorn.
"I feel greatly flattered, sir, to think that I can offer a problem
to one of your experience," Langen began. His voice, which had been
slightly veiled before, was now quite clear. "Ask me all you like.
I will answer you."
Muller began: "Why did you wait so long before committing the
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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 An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: stranger; and neither of them moved.
The newcomer was a tall, burly man. Nothing in his behavior, bearing,
or expression suggested malignity as, following the example set by the
nuns, he stood motionless, while his eyes traveled round the room.
Two straw mats laid upon planks did duty as beds. On the one table,
placed in the middle of the room, stood a brass candlestick, several
plates, three knives, and a round loaf. A small fire burned in the
grate. A few bits of wood in a heap in a corner bore further witness
to the poverty of the recluses. You had only to look at the coating of
paint on the walls to discover the bad condition of the roof, and the
ceiling was a perfect network of brown stains made by rain-water. A
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