The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: some measure saved by the vigour and unanimity with which the chorus
was thrown forth into the night. I observed a Platt-Deutsch mason,
entirely innocent of English, adding heartily to the general effect.
And perhaps the German mason is but a fair example of the sincerity
with which the song was rendered; for nearly all with whom I
conversed upon the subject were bitterly opposed to war, and
attributed their own misfortunes, and frequently their own taste for
whisky, to the campaigns in Zululand and Afghanistan.
Every now and again, however, some song that touched the pathos of
our situation was given forth; and you could hear by the voices that
took up the burden how the sentiment came home to each, 'The Anchor's
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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 Master Key by L. Frank Baum: figure of his visitor with an intense glow that resembled a halo.
Then the Demon raised his head and said:
"The thing most necessary to man is food to nourish his body. He
passes a considerable part of his life in the struggle to procure
food, to prepare it properly, and in the act of eating. This is not
right. Your body can not be very valuable to you if all your time is
required to feed it. I shall, therefore, present you, as my first
gift, this box of tablets. Within each tablet are stored certain
elements of electricity which are capable of nourishing a human body
for a full day. All you need do is to toss one into your mouth each
day and swallow it. It will nourish you, satisfy your hunger and
 The Master Key |
The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: rendering me immune to the questions of my Familey, who wanted to
know how I spent my time.
Oh, magic eyes of afection, which see the beloved object as
containing all the virtues, including strong features and
intellagence! Oh, dear dead Dreams, when I saw myself going down
the church isle in white satin and Dutchess lace! O Tempora O
Mores! Farewell.
What would have happened, I wonder, if father had not discharged
Smith that night for carrying passengers to the Club from the
railway station in our car, charging them fifty cents each and
scraching the varnish with golf clubs?
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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 Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "It was something like that, anyhow. But it was a nasty business,
and it made matters worse that he didn't care that a telegram which
must pass through a half dozen hands was more or less incriminating
to me.
"Then, to add to the unpleasantness of my position, just after we
boarded the train - I was accompanying my sister and this young lady,
Miss West - a woman touched me on the sleeve, and I turned to face
- my wife!
"That took away my last bit of nerve. I told my sister, and you
can understand she was in a bad way, too. We knew what it meant.
Ida had heard that I was going - "
 The Man in Lower Ten |