| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: I went down the mountain and brought back a fat, red man in an alpaca
coat and no collar.
"Gentlemen," says Colonel Rockingham, "allow me to introduce my
brother, Captain Duval C. Rockingham, vice-president of the Sunrise &
Edenville Tap Railroad."
"Otherwise the King of Morocco," says I. "I reckon you don't mind my
counting the ransom, just as a business formality."
"Well, no, not exactly," says the fat man, "not when it comes. I
turned that matter over to our second vice-president. I was anxious
after Brother Jackson's safetiness. I reckon he'll be along right
soon. What does that lobster salad you mentioned taste like, Brother
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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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: had him once in my mind, and was pointing my moral from quite
another man. But don't you see, by this wrath of the guilty-
conscienced Sacks, that he had been abusing me too? He has owned
himself guilty, never having been accused. He has winced when
nobody thought of hitting him. I did but put the cap out, and
madly butting and chafing, behold my friend rushes out to put his
head into it! Never mind, Sacks, you are found out; but I bear you
no malice, my man.
And yet to be found out, I know from my own experience, must be
painful and odious, and cruelly mortifying to the inward vanity.
Suppose I am a poltroon, let us say. With fierce mustache, loud
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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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: Stanton's malady was propagated with infernal and successful
industry. Stanton's next relative, a needy unprincipled man,
watched the report in its circulation, and saw the snares closing
round his victim. He waited on him one morning, accompanied by a
person of a grave, though somewhat repulsive appearance. Stanton
was as usual abstracted and restless, and, after a few moments'
conversation, he proposed a drive a few miles out of London, which
he said would revive and refresh him. Stanton objected, on account
of the difficulty of getting a hackney coach (for it is singular
that at this period the number of private equipages, though
infinitely fewer than they are now, exceeded the number of hired
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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 Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: Sunday I am quite sure they do it for the trial of the fisherman's
faith.
But how should I tell all the little incidents which made that lazy
voyage so delightful? Favonius was the ideal host, for on water,
as well as on land, he knows how to provide for the liberty as well
as for the wants of his guests. He understands also the fine art
of conversation, which consists of silence as well as speech. And
when it comes to angling, Izaak Walton himself could not have been
a more profitable teacher by precept or example. Indeed, it is a
curious thought, and one full of sadness to a well-constituted
mind, that on the Ristigouche "I. W." would have been at sea, for
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