| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: must fight shy of the beak for a long time to come."
It will now be understood how Asie contrived to be in the Salle des
Pas-Perdus of the Palais de Justice with a summons in her hand, asking
her way along the passages and stairs leading to the examining judge's
chambers, and inquiring for Monsieur Camusot, about a quarter of an
hour before that gentleman's arrival.
Asie was not recognizable. After washing off her "make-up" as an old
woman, like an actress, she applied rouge and pearl powder, and
covered her head with a well-made fair wig. Dressed exactly as a lady
of the Faubourg Saint-Germain might be if in search of a dog she had
lost, she looked about forty, for she shrouded her features under 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 A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: at the persons or the people they came among. But so it was, that
excepting that in Cripplegate parish, and two or three little eruptions
of fires, which were presently extinguished, there was no disaster of
that kind happened in the whole year. They told us a story of a house
in a place called Swan Alley, passing from Goswell Street, near the
end of Old Street, into St John Street, that a family was infected there
in so terrible a manner that every one of the house died. The last
person lay dead on the floor, and, as it is supposed, had lain herself all
along to die just before the fire; the fire, it seems, had fallen from its
place, being of wood, and had taken hold of the boards and the joists
they lay on, and burnt as far as just to the body, but had not taken hold
A Journal of the Plague Year |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: You could easy see that something had been dragged
over the ground. I did wish Tom Sawyer was there;
I knowed he would take an interest in this kind of
business, and throw in the fancy touches. Nobody
could spread himself like Tom Sawyer in such a thing
as that.
Well, last I pulled out some of my hair, and blooded
the axe good, and stuck it on the back side, and slung
the axe in the corner. Then I took up the pig and held
him to my breast with my jacket (so he couldn't drip)
till I got a good piece below the house and then
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: blundered through the stillness. Some one tiptoed across and
whispered in the ear of the nearest player. A moment later the
chairs at the two tables scraped back. One of them fell violently
to the floor. Their occupants joined the tense group about the
monte game. All the girls drew near. Only behind the bar the
white-aproned bartenders wiped their glasses with apparent
imperturbability, their eyes, however, on their brass knuckles
hanging just beneath the counter, their ears pricked up for the riot
call.
The gambler pretended to deliberate, his cool, shifty eyes running
over the group before him. A small door immediately behind him
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