| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: sexton obeys my directions concerning the two coffins! No minister
need come; nor need anything be said over me. - I tell you I have
nearly attained MY heaven; and that of others is altogether
unvalued and uncovered by me.'
'And supposing you persevered in your obstinate fast, and died by
that means, and they refused to bury you in the precincts of the
kirk?' I said, shocked at his godless indifference. 'How would you
like it?'
'They won't do that,' he replied: 'if they did, you must have me
removed secretly; and if you neglect it you shall prove,
practically, that the dead are not annihilated!'
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: court, and the king of your department."
"He, who voted for the death of Louis XVI. in case the army of Conde
entered France!" cried Laurence.
"He, who probably advised the murder of the Duc d'Enghien!" exclaimed
Paul-Marie.
"Well, well, if you want to recapitulate his titles of nobility," cried
Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, "say he who pulled Robespierre by the skirts
of his coat to make him fall when he saw that his enemies were
stronger than he; he who would have shot Bonaparte if the 18th
Brumaire had missed fire; he who manoeuvres now to bring back the
Bourbons if Napoleon totters; he whom the strong will ever find on
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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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: every variation in the energy of the action; almost every
application which could possibly be made of magnetism to bring out
in detail the character of this new force, is minutely described.
The field is swept clean, and hardly anything experimental is left
for the gleaner. The phenomena, he concludes, are altogether
different from those of magnetism or diamagnetism: they would appear,
in fact, to present to us 'a new force, or a new form of force,
in the molecules of matter,' which, for convenience sake, he designates
by a new word, as 'the magne-crystallic force.'
He looks at the crystal acted upon by the magnet. From its mass he
passes, in idea, to its atoms, and he asks himself whether the power
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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 Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: beside her.
"I suppose it isn't best to wake up babies; makes them cross, and
they cry," he said. "Say, Eudora, is he much trouble?"
"Very little," replied Eudora, still in that strange voice.
"Doesn't keep you awake nights?"
"Oh no."
"Because if he does, I really think you should have a nurse. I
don't think you ought to lose sleep taking care of him."
"I do not."
"Well, I was mighty glad when I heard you had adopted him. I
suppose you made sure about his parentage, where he hailed from
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