| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: mechanism to make the teacher miserable. She looked reprovingly
at him this morning, when he came in during arithmetic class, his
hair all wind-blown, his cheeks rosy from a hard fight with the
sharp blasts. But he made up for his tardiness by his extreme
goodness all day; just think, Titee did not even eat once before
noon, a something unparalleled in the entire previous history of
his school life.
When the lunch-hour came, and all the yard was a scene of feast
and fun, one of the boys found him standing by a post,
disconsolately watching a ham sandwich as it rapidly disappeared
down the throat of a sturdy, square-headed little fellow.
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: exhausting in her own behalf the luck of Gil Blas, or the triumphs of
Pasta, Malibran, and Florine. Then, weary of the horrors and
excitements, she returned to actual life. She married a notary, she
ate the plain brown bread of honest everyday life, she saw herself a
Madame Latournelle; she accepted a painful existence, she bore all the
trials of a struggle with fortune. After that she went back to the
romances: she was loved for her beauty; a son of a peer of France, an
eccentric, artistic young man, divined her heart, recognized the star
which the genius of a De Stael had planted on her brow. Her father
returned, possessing millions. With his permission, she put her
various lovers to certain tests (always carefully guarding her own
Modeste Mignon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: women as it was toward men, except that he had sworn
always to protect them. Possibly in a way he looked
up to womankind, if it could be said that Norman of
Torn looked up to anything: God, man or devil. It
being more his way to look down upon all creatures
whom he took the trouble to notice at all.
As his glance rested upon this woman, whom fate
had destined to alter the entire course of his life, Nor-
man of Torn saw that she was beautiful, and that she
was of that class against whom he had preyed for
years with his band of outlaw cut-throats. Then he
The Outlaw of Torn |
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 Laches by Plato: general interest in military studies, and greatly adding to the appearance
of the soldier in the field. Laches, the blunt warrior, is of opinion that
such an art is not knowledge, and cannot be of any value, because the
Lacedaemonians, those great masters of arms, neglect it. His own
experience in actual service has taught him that these pretenders are
useless and ridiculous. This man Stesilaus has been seen by him on board
ship making a very sorry exhibition of himself. The possession of the art
will make the coward rash, and subject the courageous, if he chance to make
a slip, to invidious remarks. And now let Socrates be taken into counsel.
As they differ he must decide.
Socrates would rather not decide the question by a plurality of votes: in
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