| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Three Taverns by Edwin Arlington Robinson: To see beyond them. He could hear spoken words,
But had no ear for silence when alone.
He could eat food of which he knew the savor,
But had no palate for the Bread of Life,
That human desperation, to his thinking,
Made famous long ago, having no other.
Now do you see? Do you begin to see?"
I told him that I did begin to see;
And I was nearer than I should have been
To laughing at his malign inclusiveness,
When I considered that, with all our speed,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: astonished one day, when they were standing side by side, to find
the girl was taller than herself.
"Why, Anne, how you've grown!" she said, almost unbelievingly. A
sigh followed on the words. Marilla felt a queer regret over
Anne's inches. The child she had learned to love had vanished
somehow and here was this tall, serious-eyed girl of fifteen,
with the thoughtful brows and the proudly poised little head, in
her place. Marilla loved the girl as much as she had loved the
child, but she was conscious of a queer sorrowful sense of loss.
And that night, when Anne had gone to prayer meeting with Diana,
Marilla sat alone in the wintry twilight and indulged in the
Anne of Green Gables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: feeling that had bewitched me, and not the passion for angling."
A NORWEGIAN HONEYMOON
"The best rose-bush, after all, is not that which has the fewest
thorns, but that which bears the finest roses."--SOLOMON SINGLEWITZ:
The Life of Adam.
I
It was not all unadulterated sweetness, of course. There were
enough difficulties in the way to make it seem desirable; and a few
stings of annoyance, now and then, lent piquancy to the adventure.
But a good memory, in dealing with the past, has the art of
straining out all the beeswax of discomfort, and storing up little
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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 A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: his pretty face, framed in fair curls that fell over his white collar,
smiled up like a cherub's at his mother when she said to him from the
depths of an easy-chair, "Not so much noise, Charles; you will wake
your little sister."
The inquisitive boy suddenly got off his horse, and treading on tiptoe
as if he were afraid of the sound of his feet on the carpet, came up
with one finger between his little teeth, and standing in one of those
childish attitudes that are so graceful because they are so perfectly
natural, raised the muslin veil that hid the rosy face of a little
girl sleeping on her mother's knee.
"Is Eugenie asleep, then?" said he, quite astonished. "Why is she
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