| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: full of tenderness for gentleness. The outline of that little head, so
admirably poised above the long, white throat, the delicate, fine
features, the subtle curves of the lips, the mobile face itself, wore
an expression of delicate discretion, a faint semblance of irony
suggestive of craft and insolence. Yet it would have been difficult to
refuse forgiveness to those two feminine failings in her; for the
lines that came out in her forehead whenever her face was not in
repose, like her upward glances (that pathetic trick of manner), told
unmistakably of unhappiness, of a passion that had all but cost her
her life. A woman, sitting in the great, silent salon, a woman cut off
from the rest of the world in this remote little valley, alone, with
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: quite as sharp, as strange, as startling: it acted on my senses as
if their utmost activity hitherto had been but torpor, from which
they were now summoned and forced to wake. They rose expectant:
eye and ear waited while the flesh quivered on my bones.
"What have you heard? What do you see?" asked St. John. I saw
nothing, but I heard a voice somewhere cry -
"Jane! Jane! Jane!"--nothing more.
"O God! what is it?" I gasped.
I might have said, "Where is it?" for it did not seem in the room--
nor in the house--nor in the garden; it did not come out of the air-
-nor from under the earth--nor from overhead. I had heard it--
Jane Eyre |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: rescue of the men of Pygela, and attacking the scattered bands of the
Athenian light troops, put them to flight. But to the aid of the light
troops came the naval brigade of peltasts, with two companies of heavy
infantry, and all but annihilated the whole detachment from Miletus.
They captured about two hundred shields, and set up a trophy. Next day
they sailed to Notium, and from Notium, after due preparation, marched
upon Colophon. The Colophonians capitulated without a blow. The
following night they made an incursion into Lydia, where the corn
crops were ripe, and burnt several villages, and captured money,
slaves, and other booty in large quantity. But Stages, the Persian,
who was employed in this neighbourhood, fell in with a reinforcement
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: Still it was this and nothing else that put it into my head to
fly to Zululand on an emergency that was to arise ere long.*
[*--For the history of Zikali and Mameena see the book called
_Child of Storm_ by H. Rider Haggard.]
That evening Rodd was absent from dinner, and on inquiring where
he might be, I was informed that he had ridden to visit a Kaffir
headman, a patient of his who lived at a distance, and would very
probably sleep at the kraal, returning early next day. One of
the topics of conversation during dinner was as to where the
exact boundary line used to run between the Transvaal and the
country over which the Basuto chief, Sekukuni, claimed ownership
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