| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: elsewhere; that than would come a successor to take care of Santa Ysabel-
-a younger man, more useful, and able to visit sick people at a distance.
"For I am old now. I should not be long has in any case." He stopped and
pressed his hands together; he had caught his Temptation in the very act.
Now he sat staring at his Temptation's face, close to him, while then in
the triangle two ships went sailing by.
One morning Felipe told him that the barkentine was here on its return
voyage south. "Indeed." said the Padre, coldly. "The things are ready
to go, I think." For the vessel called for mail and certain boxes that
the mission sent away. Felipe left the room in wonder at the Padre's
manner. But the priest was laughing secretly to see how little it was to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: women, sedate of manner, decorous and sententious of speech. He had
been petted by those women in gray gowns and embroidered mittens
described by Blondet. The antiquated splendors of his father's house
were as little calculated as possible to suggest frivolous thoughts;
and lastly, he had been educated by a sincerely religious abbe,
possessed of all the charm of old age, which has dwelt in two
centuries, and brings to the Present its gifts of the dried roses of
experience, the faded flowers of the old customs of its youth.
Everything should have combined to fashion Victurnien to serious
habits; his whole surroundings from childhood bade him continue the
glory of a historic name, by taking his life as something noble and
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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 Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: for pedestrians, the Rows, that ran along the front of the houses
at the level of the first story, and, being joined by frequent
bridges, gave the newer parts of London a curiously Venetian
appearance. In some streets there were upper and even third-story
Rows. For most of the day and all night the shop windows were
lit by electric light, and many establishments had made, as it
were, canals of public footpaths through their premises in order
to increase their window space.
Barnet made his way along this night-scene rather apprehensively
since the police had power to challenge and demand the Labour
Card of any indigent-looking person, and if the record failed to
The Last War: A World Set Free |
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 Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: the seal should not be broken. Then came the news from
Petrograd and Moscow about the Red terror, and the Soviet,
after holding a meeting and deciding that it ought to do
something, and being on too good terms with all of us to do
anything very bad, suddenly remembered poor Maria
Nicolaevna's garrets. They broke the seals and tumbled out
all the kitchen things, knives, forks, plates, furniture, the
twenty-two samovars and the overcoats, took them in carts
to the Soviet and declared them national property. National
property! And a week or two later there was a wedding of a
daughter of one of the members of the Soviet, and somehow
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