| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: He had two daughters about my own age, and I always spent the hot
season there, and, once, a whole year. The three of us were like
Indians. Not that we ran wild, exactly, but that we were wild to
run wild. There were always the governesses, you know, and
lessons, and sewing, and housekeeping; but I'm afraid we were too
often bribed to our tasks with promises of horses or of cattle
drives.
"Von had been in the army, and Dad was an old sea-dog, and they
were both stern disciplinarians; only the two girls had no mother,
and neither had I, and they were two men after all. They spoiled
us terribly. You see, they didn't have any wives, and they made
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: "Not all the circumstances, of course," the narrator continued, with a
certain guarded candour in his tone. "There are certain circumstances
which naturally attend every engagement between happy and--and devoted--
young people that they keep to themselves quite carefully, in spite of
the fact that any one who has been through the experience of being
engaged two or three times--"
There was another movement from Ethel by the sofa.
"--or even only once, as is my case," the narrator went on, "any body, I
say, who has been through the experience of being engaged only once, can
form a very correct idea of the circumstances that attend the happy
engagements of all young people. I imagine they prevail in all countries,
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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 Timaeus by Plato: fairest and loveliest of all sights to him who has the seeing eye. Just as
a body which has a leg too long, or which is unsymmetrical in some other
respect, is an unpleasant sight, and also, when doing its share of work, is
much distressed and makes convulsive efforts, and often stumbles through
awkwardness, and is the cause of infinite evil to its own self--in like
manner we should conceive of the double nature which we call the living
being; and when in this compound there is an impassioned soul more powerful
than the body, that soul, I say, convulses and fills with disorders the
whole inner nature of man; and when eager in the pursuit of some sort of
learning or study, causes wasting; or again, when teaching or disputing in
private or in public, and strifes and controversies arise, inflames and
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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 Options by O. Henry: equal to such details."
"And he must remember," went on Chloe, to remind me of what I want
when I do not know, myself, what I want."
"You're rising in the scale," I said. "What you seem to need is a
first-class clairvoyant."
"And if I say that I am dying to hear a Beethoven sonata, and stamp my
foot when I say it, he must know by that that what my soul craves is
salted almonds; and he will have them ready in his pocket."
"Now," said I, "I am at a loss. I do not know whether your soul's
affinity is to be an impresario or a fancy grocer."
Chole turned her pearly smile upon me.
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