| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Grant me grace!
I hope the cat won't scratch your face!''
So they went skipping down the walk together just as they had gone
before. Then Sister Mary Felice and Sister Theckla both said:
``Well! Well!''
* * *
* *
*
One time it came about that Bessie Bell lay a long time in her
little white crib-bed, and she did not know why, and she did not
care much why. She did not get up and play in the sand while Sister
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: 5
I had the experience of meeting a contemporary king upon this
journey. He was the first king I had ever met. The Potsdam
figure--with perhaps some local exceptions behind the Gold Coast--
is, with its collection of uniforms and its pomps and splendours,
the purest survival of the old tradition of divine monarchy now
that the Emperor at Pekin has followed the Shogun into the
shadows. The modern type of king shows a disposition to intimate
at the outset that he cannot help it, and to justify or at any
rate utilise his exceptional position by sound hard work. It is
an age of working kings, with the manners of private gentlemen.
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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 The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Of these or those, the question settled die.'
'Yea,' answered I, 'for this wreath of air,
This flake of rainbow flying on the highest
Foam of men's deeds--this honour, if ye will.
It needs must be for honour if at all:
Since, what decision? if we fail, we fail,
And if we win, we fail: she would not keep
Her compact.' ''Sdeath! but we will send to her,'
Said Arac, 'worthy reasons why she should
Bide by this issue: let our missive through,
And you shall have her answer by the word.'
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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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: He had come near these perils in the body; he had visited a robber
inn. The public has an old and well-grounded favour for this class
of incident, and shall be gratified to the best of my power.
My fellow-passenger, whom we shall call M'Naughten, had come from New
York to Boston with a comrade, seeking work. They were a pair of
rattling blades; and, leaving their baggage at the station, passed
the day in beer saloons, and with congenial spirits, until midnight
struck. Then they applied themselves to find a lodging, and walked
the streets till two, knocking at houses of entertainment and being
refused admittance, or themselves declining the terms. By two the
inspiration of their liquor had begun to wear off; they were weary
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