| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: she was looking right at me and smiling. It didn't seem terrible
or ghastly in the least. She seemed very sweet. When I opened
the door it set the water in motion, and she got up and dropped
the satchel, and came toward me smiling and holding out her arms.
"I stepped back quick and shut the door, and sat down in one of
the saloon chairs to fetch my breath, for it had given me a start.
The next thing to do was to send her up. But I began to think.
She seemed so pretty as she was. What was the use of bringing her
up--up there on the wrecking float with that crowd of men--up
where the air would get at her, and where they would put her in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Full often hath she gossipt by my side,
And sat with me on Neptunes yellow sands,
Marking th' embarked traders on the flood,
When we haue laught to see the sailes conceiue,
And grow big bellied with the wanton winde:
Which she with pretty and with swimming gate,
Following (her wombe then rich with my yong squire)
Would imitate, and saile vpon the Land,
To fetch me trifles, and returne againe,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandize.
But she being mortall, of that boy did die,
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: scruple not to read, though quite aware her embarrassments couldn't
but be now of the gravest. I sacrificed to propriety by simply
putting them away, and this is how, one day as my absence drew to
an end, my eye, while I rummaged in my desk for another paper, was
caught by a name on a leaf that had detached itself from the
packet. The allusion was to Miss Anvoy, who, it appeared, was
engaged to be married to Mr. George Gravener; and the news was two
months old. A direct question of Mrs. Saltram's had thus remained
unanswered--she had enquired of me in a postscript what sort of man
this aspirant to such a hand might be. The great other fact about
him just then was that he had been triumphantly returned for
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Hath barr'd him from the blessed thing he sought.
So from himself impiety hath wrought,
That for his prey to pray he doth begin,
As if the heavens should countenance his sin.
But in the midst of his unfruitful prayer,
Having solicited the eternal power,
That his foul thoughts might compass his fair fair,
And they would stand auspicious to the hour,
Even there he starts:--quoth he, 'I must de-flower;
The powers to whom I pray abhor this fact,
How can they then assist me in the act?
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