| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: here, and who was afterward nicknamed Clochette. The assistant
master singled out the pretty young girl, who was no doubt
flattered at being chosen by this disdainful conqueror; at any
rate, she fell in love with him, and he succeeded in persuading
her to give him a first meeting in the hayloft behind the school,
at night, after she had done her day's sewing.
"She pretended to go home, but instead of going downstairs when
she left the Grabus', she went upstairs and hid among the hay, to
wait for her lover. He soon joined her, and he was beginning to
say pretty things to her, when the door of the hayloft opened and
the schoolmaster appeared, and asked: 'What are you doing up
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: vague. But on the instant of final decision, when he had
settled with himself that he would meet Bain, such a storm of
passion assailed him that he felt as if he was being shaken
with ague. Yet it was all internal, inside his breast, for his
hand was like a rock and, for all he could see, not a muscle
about him quivered. He had no fear of Bain or of any other man;
but a vague fear of himself, of this strange force in him, made
him ponder and shake his head. It was as if he had not all to
say in this matter. There appeared to have been in him a
reluctance to let himself go, and some voice, some spirit from
a distance, something he was not accountable for, had compelled
The Lone Star Ranger |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: of twenty radium pumps any one of which was equal to the
task of furnishing all Mars with the atmosphere compound.
For eight hundred years, he told me, he had watched these
pumps which are used alternately a day each at a stretch, or
a little over twenty-four and one-half Earth hours. He has one
assistant who divides the watch with him. Half a Martian
year, about three hundred and forty-four of our days, each
of these men spend alone in this huge, isolated plant.
Every red Martian is taught during earliest childhood the
principles of the manufacture of atmosphere, but only two
at one time ever hold the secret of ingress to the great building,
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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 Recruit by Honore de Balzac: He said no more, but all present understood what he meant.
The sincere friends of Madame de Dey were so alarmed about her, that
on the morning of the third day, the procureur-syndic of the commune
made his wife write her a letter, urging her to receive her visitors
as usual that evening. Bolder still, the old merchant went himself in
the morning to Madame de Dey's house, and, strong in the service he
wanted to render her, he insisted on seeing her, and was amazed to
find her in the garden gathering flowers for her vases.
"She must be protecting a lover," thought the old man, filled with
sudden pity for the charming woman.
The singular expression on the countess's face strengthened this
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