| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: attribute the freedom from those flies and other insects so
tormenting to man and beast during the summer months, in the
lower plains, which are bordered and interspersed with woodland.
The monotony of these immense landscapes, also, would be as
wearisome as that of the ocean, were it not relieved in some
degree by the purity and elasticity of the atmosphere, and the
beauty of the heavens. The sky has that delicious blue for which
the sky of Italy is renowned; the sun shines with a splendor
unobscured by any cloud or vapor, and a starlight night on the
prairies is glorious. This purity and elasticity of atmosphere
increases as the traveller approaches the mountains and gradually
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: Just as their hideous bodies could only rest in sacred earth, so the holiest
love was the recruiting sergeant for their ghastly ranks.
We entered Carfax without trouble and found all things
the same as on the first occasion. It was hard to believe
that amongst so prosaic surroundings of neglect and dust and
decay there was any ground for such fear as already we knew.
Had not our minds been made up, and had there not been terrible
memories to spur us on, we could hardly have proceeded with our task.
We found no papers, or any sign of use in the house.
And in the old chapel the great boxes looked just as we had
seen them last.
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: shadow of the same surprise flit across Alida's clear pupils.
"I suppose so. One just has to wait."
"Oh, hang waiting!" Ned broke in. "Life's too short for a ghost
who can only be enjoyed in retrospect. Can't we do better than
that, Mary?"
But it turned out that in the event they were not destined to,
for within three months of their conversation with Mrs. Stair
they were established at Lyng, and the life they had yearned for
to the point of planning it out in all its daily details had
actually begun for them.
It was to sit, in the thick December dusk, by just such a wide-
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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 Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: "Well, gentlemen, I would rather not. You would take good care, I know,
but there are sometimes things which happen that we cannot help. One
time a fire--"
At this racial suggestion both boys made the room joyous with mirth.
Oscar stood uneasily contemplating them. He would never be able to
understand them, not as long as he lived, nor they him. When their
mirth Was over he did somewhat better, but it was tardy. You see, he
was not a specimen of the first rank, or he would have said at once what
he said now: "I wish to study my notes a little myself, gentlemen."
"Go along, Oscar, with your inflammable notes, go along!" said Bertie,
in supreme good-humor. "And we'll meet to-morrow at ten--if there
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