| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: that she was waiting in vain. A brilliant man--Stendhal--has given the
fantastic name of "crystallization" to the process which Madame de
Listomere's thoughts went through before, during, and after this
evening.
Four days later Eugene was scolding his valet.
"Ah ca! Joseph; I shall soon have to send you away, my lad."
"What is it, monsieur?"
"You do nothing but make mistakes. Where did you carry those letters I
gave you Saturday?"
Joseph became stolid. Like a statue in some cathedral porch, he stood
motionless, entirely absorbed in the labors of imagination. Suddenly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: you. Whenever I made a particularly, bad miss, my gun-bearer,
who at some time seems to have been yours, would say, 'Ah! if
only it had been the Inkosi Macumazahn, how different would have
been the end!' My name is Anscombe, Maurice Anscombe," he added
rather shyly. (Afterwards I discovered from a book of reference
that he was a younger son of Lord Mountford, one of the richest
peers in England.)
Then we both laughed and he said--
"Tell me, Mr. Quatermain, if you will, what those Boers are
saying behind us. I am sure it is something unpleasant, but as
the only Dutch I know is 'Guten Tag' and 'Vootsack' (Good-day and
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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 Little Britain by Washington Irving: it will terminate in the total downfall of genuine John Bullism.
The immediate effects are extremely unpleasant to me.
Being a single man, and, as I observed before, rather an idle
good-for-nothing personage, I have been considered the only
gentleman by profession in the place. I stand therefore in high
favor with both parties, and have to hear all their cabinet
councils and mutual backbitings. As I am too civil not to agree
with the ladies on all occasions, I have committed myself most
horribly with both parties, by abusing their opponents. I might
manage to reconcile this to my conscience, which is a truly
accommodating one, but I cannot to my apprehension--if the
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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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: At four hundred and twenty miles I took another reading.
"Perry!" I shouted. "Perry, man! She's going down! She's
going down! She's 152 degrees again."
"Gad!" he cried. "What can it mean? Can the earth
be cold at the center?"
"I do not know, Perry," I answered; "but thank God,
if I am to die it shall not be by fire--that is all that I
have feared. I can face the thought of any death but that."
Down, down went the mercury until it stood as low as it
had seven miles from the surface of the earth, and then
of a sudden the realization broke upon us that death was
At the Earth's Core |
