| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: tell that she also knew the horror. Fanny's voice fell to a whisper
when she said SNOOKS. Miss Winchelsea would not give him any answer
when at last, in the Borghese, she could have a minute with him;
but she promised him a note.
She handed him that note in the little book of poetry he had lent
her, the little book that had first drawn them together. Her refusal
was ambiguous, allusive. She could no more tell him why she rejected
him than she could have told a cripple of his hump. He too must
feel something of the unspeakable quality of his name. Indeed he
had avoided a dozen chances of telling it, she now perceived. So she
spoke of "obstacles she could not reveal"--"reasons why the thing he
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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 Virginian by Owen Wister: of the house, everywhere. He implored us to call for whatever
pleased us, and as many times as we should please. He ordered the
town to be searched for more citizens to come and help him pay
his bet. But changing his mind, kegs and bottles were now carried
along with us. We had found three fiddlers, and these played
busily for us; and thus we set out to visit all cabins and houses
where people might still by some miracle be asleep. The first man
put out his head to decline. But such a possibility had been
foreseen by the proprietor of the store. This seemingly
respectable man now came dragging some sort of apparatus from his
place, helped by the Virginian. The cow-boys cheered, for they
The Virginian |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: weakened and shaken him mentally and physically. He died in the hour
of victory, like some old faithful hound that has brought the boar to
bay, and gets his death on the tusks. He died as happily as might be,
seeing that he left the great House all but ruined, and the heir in
penury, bored to death by an idle life, and without a hope of
establishing himself. That bitter thought and his own exhaustion, no
doubt, hastened the old man's end. One great comfort came to him as he
lay amid the wreck of so many hopes, sinking under the burden of so
many cares--the old Marquis, at his sister's entreaty, gave him back
all the old friendship. The great lord came to the little house in the
Rue du Bercail, and sat by his old servant's bedside, all unaware how
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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 Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: fanatic men that can be encountered among the sectarians of any faith
--had never asked the reason of his dogged silence; in fact, the most
observing of them thought him deaf and dumb.
When it happened that the distances between the bowls and the
/cochonnet/ had to be measured, the cane of this silent being was used
as a measure, the players coming up and taking it from the icy hands
of the old man and returning it without a word or even a sign of
friendliness. The loan of his cane seemed a servitude to which he had
negatively consented. When a shower fell, he stayed near the
/cochonnet/, the slave of the bowls, and the guardian of the
unfinished game. Rain affected him no more than the fine weather did;
Ferragus |
