| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: earnest conviction that it was her duty to go to church. She tore
herself betimes from the lingering enjoyment of her
breakfast-tray, rang to have her grey gown laid out, and
despatched her maid to borrow a prayer-book from Mrs. Trenor.
But her course was too purely reasonable not to contain the germs
of rebellion. No sooner were her preparations made than they
roused a smothered sense of resistance. A small spark was enough
to kindle Lily's imagination, and the sight of the grey dress and
the borrowed prayer-book flashed a long light down the years. She
would have to go to church with Percy Gryce every Sunday. They
would have a front pew in the most expensive church in New York,
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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: Oh, Mr. Cuthbert!!!"
That was not what Mrs. Spencer had said; neither had
the child tumbled out of the buggy nor had Matthew done
anything astonishing. They had simply rounded a curve in
the road and found themselves in the "Avenue."
The "Avenue," so called by the Newbridge people, was a
stretch of road four or five hundred yards long, completely
arched over with huge, wide-spreading apple-trees, planted
years ago by an eccentric old farmer. Overhead was one long
canopy of snowy fragrant bloom. Below the boughs the air
was full of a purple twilight and far ahead a glimpse of
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 The Jolly Corner by Henry James: "Like HIM?"
"A black stranger!"
"Then how did you know it was I?"
"Because, as I told you weeks ago, my mind, my imagination, has
worked so over what you might, what you mightn't have been - to
show you, you see, how I've thought of you. In the midst of that
you came to me - that my wonder might be answered. So I knew," she
went on; "and believed that, since the question held you too so
fast, as you told me that day, you too would see for yourself. And
when this morning I again saw I knew it would be because you had -
and also then, from the first moment, because you somehow wanted
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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 Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: Eva Point there was an observable change for the worse in the
reception of the Americans; some whom they met began to mutter at
Moors; and the adventurers, with tardy but commendable prudence,
desisted from their search after the high chief, and began to
retrace their steps. On the return, Suatele and some chiefs were
drinking kava in a "big house," and called them in to join - their
only invitation. But the night was closing, the rain had begun
again: they stayed but for civility, and returned on board the
ADAMS, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted with their
expedition. It was perhaps the last as it was certainly one of the
most extreme examples of that divinity which once hedged the white
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