| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: always; and my grandfather must at times have been left in
strange berths and with but rude provision. I may instance
the case of my father, who was storm-bound three days upon an
islet, sleeping in the uncemented and unchimneyed houses of
the islanders, and subsisting on a diet of nettle-soup and
lobsters.
The name of Soutar has twice escaped my pen, and I feel I
owe him a vignette. Soutar first attracted notice as mate of
a praam at the Bell Rock, and rose gradually to be captain of
the REGENT. He was active, admirably skilled in his trade,
and a man incapable of fear. Once, in London, he fell among a
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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 Purse by Honore de Balzac: with Adelaide to hang the picture in its place when Madame de
Rouville should be out. So one day, during the walk her mother
usually took in the Tuileries, Adelaide for the first time went
up to Hippolyte's studio, on the pretext of seeing the portrait
in the good light in which it had been painted. She stood
speechless and motionless, but in ecstatic contemplation, in
which all a woman's feelings were merged. For are they not all
comprehended in boundless admiration for the man she loves? When
the painter, uneasy at her silence, leaned forward to look at
her, she held out her hand, unable to speak a word, but two tears
fell from her eyes. Hippolyte took her hand and covered it with
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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 Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: he never got a chance; he tried heaps of times to enlist as a
private, but he had lost both thumbs and a couple of front teeth,
and the recruiting sergeant wouldn't pass him. However, as I say,
everybody knows, now, what he WOULD have been, - and so they flock
by the million to get a glimpse of him whenever they hear he is
going to be anywhere. Caesar, and Hannibal, and Alexander, and
Napoleon are all on his staff, and ever so many more great
generals; but the public hardly care to look at THEM when HE is
around. Boom! There goes another salute. The barkeeper's off
quarantine now."
Sandy and I put on our things. Then we made a wish, and in a
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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 Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: She held the brand to the ground, blowing the red coal
with her mouth at the same time; till it faintly illuminated
the sod, and revealed a small object, which turned out
to be an hourglass, though she wore a watch. She blew
long enough to show that the sand had all slipped through.
"Ah!" she said, as if surprised.
The light raised by her breath had been very fitful,
and a momentary irradiation of flesh was all that it had
disclosed of her face. That consisted of two matchless
lips and a cheek only, her head being still enveloped.
She threw away the stick, took the glass in her hand,
Return of the Native |
