| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: while they read the letter together. It was from Sir James Chettam,
offering to Mr. Garth the management of the family estates at Freshitt
and elsewhere, and adding that Sir James had been requested by
Mr. Brooke of Tipton to ascertain whether Mr. Garth would be disposed
at the same time to resume the agency of the Tipton property.
The Baronet added in very obliging words that he himself was
particularly desirous of seeing the Freshitt and Tipton estates under
the same management, and he hoped to be able to show that the double
agency might be held on terms agreeable to Mr. Garth, whom he would
be glad to see at the Hall at twelve o'clock on the following day.
"He writes handsomely, doesn't he, Susan?" said Caleb, turning his
Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: spread. It was too marvellous for utterance. Tongues could tell
but a tithe of the miracles it performed. It eased pain, gave
surcease to sorrow, brought back old memories, dead faces, and
forgotten dreams. It was a fire that ate through all the blood,
and, burning, burned not. It stoutened the heart, stiffened the
back, and made men more than men. It revealed the future, and gave
visions and prophecy. It brimmed with wisdom and unfolded secrets.
There was no end of the things it could do, and soon there was a
clamouring on all hands to sleep with the gods. They brought their
warmest furs, their strongest dogs, their best meats; but I sold
the hooch with discretion, and only those were favoured that
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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 Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: shudder went through her. Not daring to move, she pressed
herself against the wall, and her heart seemed to stop as the
unseen stranger passed. Instead of his ascending where she had
come down, as she had expected, she heard him grope his way
toward the door she had seen in the wall.
There he seemed to find a stairway, and when his steps were
thus turned from her, she was seized by a sudden impulse and
followed him, groping her way as she could. She remembered
that the girls had talked of secret stairways in that house,
though she had no conception whither they could lead, unless to
some of the shut-up closets.
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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 The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: decided, after he had eaten some of the vegetables from
the garden, and in fact he slept very well, with the
two tin men and the Scarecrow sitting silently beside
him and Polychrome away somewhere in the moonlight
dancing her fairy dances.
At daybreak the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier took
occasion to polish their bodies and oil their joints,
for both were exceedingly careful of their personal
appearance. They had forgotten the quarrel due to their
accidental bumping of one another in the invisible
country, and being now good friends the Tin Woodman
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
