| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: as she said, in a mere slum, with an old aunt, a person in
connexion with whom she spoke of the engrossment of humdrum duties
and regular occupations. She wasn't, the mourning niece, in her
first youth, and her vanished freshness had left something behind
that, for Stransom, represented the proof it had been tragically
sacrificed. Whatever she gave him the assurance of she gave
without references. She might have been a divorced duchess - she
might have been an old maid who taught the harp.
CHAPTER V.
THEY fell at last into the way of walking together almost every
time they met, though for a long time still they never met but at
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum: the sky is as clear as can be."
He looked again and nodded.
"P'r'aps we can make the cave, all right," he agreed,
not wishing to disappoint her. "It's only a little way
out, an' we'll be on the watch; so come along, Trot."
Together they descended the winding path to the
beach. It was no trouble for the girl to keep her
footing on the steep way, but Cap'n Bill, because of
his wooden leg, had to hold on to rocks and roots now
and then to save himself from tumbling. On a level path
he was as spry as anyone, but to climb up hill or down
The Scarecrow of Oz |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the happenings of the preceding night. For the time she
had forgotten that she was alone in the company of a
tramp and a burglar--how much worse either might be
she could only guess.
The breakfast, commenced so auspiciously, continued
in gloomy silence. At least the girl and The Oskaloosa
Kid were silent and gloom steeped. Bridge was thought-
ful but far from morose. His spirits were unquenchable.
"I am afraid," he said, "that I shall have to replace
James. His defection is unforgivable, and he has mis-
placed the finger-bowls."
The Oakdale Affair |
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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: money which was in the desk, a generous fear put an end to the chill
ferment of her nightmare. She sprang terrified, and in her night-gown,
into the very centre of the room to help her husband, whom she
supposed to be in the grasp of assassins.
"Birotteau! Birotteau!" she cried at last in a voice full of anguish.
She then saw the perfumer in the middle of the next room, a yard-stick
in his hand measuring the air, and so ill wrapped up in his green
cotton dressing-gown with chocolate-colored spots that the cold had
reddened his legs without his feeling it, preoccupied as he was. When
Cesar turned about to say to his wife, "Well, what do you want,
Constance?" his air and manner, like those of a man absorbed in
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
