| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: and wiser, and more tired of folly and of vain repetitions.
A flag is hoisted, and all the morning the rites are celebrated,
the cake eaten, healths drunk, speeches made, and hands nearly shaken off.
The neighbouring parsons drive up, and when nobody is looking their wives
count the candles in the cake; the active lady in the next Schlass spares
time to send a pot of flowers, and to look up my age in the Gotha Almanach;
a deputation comes from the farms headed by the chief inspector in white
kid gloves who invokes Heaven's blessings on the gracious lady's head;
and the babies are enchanted, and sit in a corner trying on all the mittens.
In the evening there is a dinner for the relations and the chief local
authorities, with more health-drinking and speechifying, and the next morning,
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: commencing conversation. It might indeed be supposed to refer to
the course of Gluck's thoughts, which had first produced the dwarf's
observations out of the pot; but whatever it referred to, Gluck had
no inclination to dispute the dictum.
"Wouldn't it, sir?" said Gluck very mildly and submissively
indeed.
"No," said the dwarf, conclusively, "no, it wouldn't." And
with that the dwarf pulled his cap hard over his brows and took two
turns, of three feet long, up and down the room, lifting his legs up
very high and setting them down very hard. This pause gave time for
Gluck to collect his thoughts a little, and, seeing no great reason
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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 Daisy Miller by Henry James: plenty of gentlemen."
By this time Daisy had turned her attention again to Winterbourne.
"I've been telling Mrs. Walker how mean you were!" the young girl announced.
"And what is the evidence you have offered?" asked Winterbourne,
rather annoyed at Miss Miller's want of appreciation of the zeal of
an admirer who on his way down to Rome had stopped neither at Bologna
nor at Florence, simply because of a certain sentimental impatience.
He remembered that a cynical compatriot had once told him that
American women--the pretty ones, and this gave a largeness to the axiom--
were at once the most exacting in the world and the least endowed
with a sense of indebtedness.
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: maudlin invitations to drink.
The crowd gathered at the pier comprised fully half the population
of Monrovia. It centred about the life saving crew, whose mortar
was being loaded. A stove-in lifeboat mutely attested the failure
of other efforts. The men worked busily, ramming home the powder
sack, placing the projectile with the light line attached, attending
that the reel ran freely. Their chief watched the seas and winds
through his glasses. When the preparations were finished, he
adjusted the mortar, and pulled the string. Carroll had seen this
done in practice. Now, with the recollection of that experience in
mind, she was astonished at the feeble report of the piece, and its
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