| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: Agricultural Show, whose vast encampment spreads over the open
outskirts of the town like the tents of an investing army.
Rows of marquees, huts, booths, pavilions, arcades, porticoes--
every kind of structure short of a permanent one--
cover the green field for the space of a square half-mile,
and the crowds of arrivals walk through the town in a mass,
and make straight for the exhibition ground. The way thereto
is lined with shows, stalls, and hawkers on foot, who make
a market-place of the whole roadway to the show proper, and lead
some of the improvident to lighten their pockets appreciably
before they reach the gates of the exhibition they came expressly
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: He leide upon his bedd to slepe:
The thridde, which he wolde kepe
Withinne his chambre, faire and softe
He goth now doun nou up fulofte,
Walkende a pass, that he ne slepte,
Til he which on the courser lepte
Was come fro the field ayein.
Nero thanne, as the bokes sein, 1200
These men doth taken alle thre
And slouh hem, for he wolde se
The whos stomak was best defied:
Confessio Amantis |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: or whatever it's called--and he got special terms for her.
She was rather old, you know, to go to school, but he arranged
it very nicely for her--and there is such a good boys'
college there, it seemed the wisest thing to send Alfred too.
Julia is to finish at Christmas-time--and what I'm
going to do with her afterward is more than I know."
"Is she pretty?" the uncle of Julia enquired.
"She's very nice," the mother answered, with vague extenuation
in her tone. "I don't know about her looks--she varies
so much. Sometimes I think she's pretty--and then again
I can't think it. She's got good features, and she holds
The Market-Place |
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 Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: CHAPTER VIII
JOHANN KNOLL REMEMBERS SOMETHING ELSE
Muller's goal was the prison where Johann Knoll was awaiting his
fate. The detective had permission to see the man as often as
he wished to. Knoll had been proven a thief, but the accusation
of murder against him had not been strengthened by anything but
the most superficial circumstantial evidence, therefore it was
necessary that Muller should talk with him in the hope of
discovering something more definite.
Knoll lay asleep on his cot as the detective and the warder entered
the cell. Muller motioned the attendant to leave him alone with
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