| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: he said slowly. "It is too sad a thing to talk about.
But there! it is my load, and I bear it, and there's nothing
more to be said."
Theron drew a heavy sigh, and let his fingers toy
abstractedly with a ribbon on the outer edge of Celia's
penumbra of apparel.
"No," she said. "We mustn't snivel, and we mustn't sulk.
When I get into a rage it makes me ill, and I storm my way
through it and tear things, but it doesn't last long,
and I come out of it feeling all the better. I don't know
that I've ever seen your wife. I suppose she hasn't got
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: limitations of the French, the Spanish, the Italian, or the
Austrian schools had not enslaved him in youth and hampered the
free development of his individuality. He had studied them all;
he chose from them all their superiorities; their excellences he
blended into a system of his own.
It might be called the Cleggett System.
The Frenchman is an intellectual swordsman; the basis of his art
is a thorough knowledge of its mathematics. Upon this foundation
he superimposes a structure of audacity. But he often falls into
one error or another, for all his mental brilliancy. He may
become rigidly formal in his practice, or, in a revolt from his
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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 Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: in climbing. Her astonished heart and lungs ceased to
object so strenuously to the unaccustomed work. The Cabin
Rock trail, for example, whose summit found her panting and
exhausted at first, now seemed a mere stroll. She grew more
daring and ambitious. One day she climbed the Long's Peak
trail to timberline, and had tea at Timberline Cabin with
Albert Edward Cobbins. Albert Edward Cobbins, Englishman,
erstwhile sailor, adventurer and gentleman, was the keeper
of Timberline Cabin, and the loneliest man in the Rockies.
It was his duty to house overnight climbers bound for the
Peak, sunrise parties and sunset parties, all too few now in
Fanny Herself |
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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: nothing else, and who yesterday was Queen out of the Epiphany cake
and chose Robinet (the French Painter) as her FAVORI with the most
pretty confusion possible - into the bargain with Marie, we have
two little Russian girls, with the youngest of whom, a little
polyglot button of a three-year old, I had the most laughable
little scene at lunch to-day. I was watching her being fed with
great amusement, her face being as broad as it is long, and her
mouth capable of unlimited extension; when suddenly, her eye
catching mine, the fashion of her countenance was changed, and
regarding me with a really admirable appearance of offended
dignity, she said something in Italian which made everybody laugh
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