| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: ready convinced that HOW TO BE A DETECTIVE
would help him not at all, and with the natural suspicion
of ignorance he feared to divulge his knowledge to the
city detective for fear that the latter would find the
means to cheat him out of the princely reward offered
by the Oakdale village board. He thought of going at
once to the Squibbs' house and placing the desperate
criminals under arrest; but as fear throttled the idea in
its infancy he cast about for some other plan.
Even as he stood there thinking the great detective
and his companions were entering the automobile to
The Oakdale Affair |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Iron Puddler by James J. Davis: pay it back. They wanted to call silver and paper cash and pay
the debt with this new kind of money. He wanted a money system by
which a farmer could borrow money to put in his crop, then having
failed to raise a crop (I have mentioned the great drought years)
could yet pay back the money. But no farming nation can suffer
great crop losses without being set back financially and starved
to where it hurts. You've got to figure God's laws into your
human calculations.
"Bryan might as well try to dodge the hungry days by advocating
the free and unlimited coinage of tomato cans," is the way one of
the fellows put it; "then every man could borrow a dollar and buy
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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 Talisman by Walter Scott: tone to Sir Kenneth, "The Hamako is now in his better mind, but
he will not speak until we have eaten--such is his vow."
It was in silence, accordingly, that Theodorick motioned to the
Scot to take his place on one of the low chairs, while Sheerkohf
placed himself, after the custom of his nation, upon a cushion of
mats. The hermit then held up both hands, as if blessing the
refreshment which he had placed before his guests, and they
proceeded to eat in silence as profound as his own. To the
Saracen this gravity was natural; and the Christian imitated his
taciturnity, while he employed his thoughts on the singularity of
his own situation, and the contrast betwixt the wild, furious
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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 Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: Macaulay was overflowing as usual, and Lord Mahon and Milman are
full of learning and accomplishments. The classical scholarship of
these men is very perfect and sometimes one catches a glimpse of
awfully deep abysses of learning. But then it is ONLY a glimpse,
for their learning has no cumbrous and dull pedantry about it. They
are all men of society and men of the world, who keep up with it
everywhere. There is many a pleasant story and many a good joke,
and everything discussed but politics, which, as Sir Robert and
Macaulay belong to opposite dynasties, might be dangerous ground.
After dinner we went a little before ten to Lady Charlotte
Lindsay's. She came last week to say that she was to have a little
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