| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: which had just left us anchored outside the bar, I saw the straight
line of the flat shore joined to the stable sea, edge to edge,
with a perfect and unmarked closeness, in one leveled floor
half brown, half blue under the enormous dome of the sky.
Corresponding in their insignificance to the islets of the sea,
two small clumps of trees, one on each side of the only fault
in the impeccable joint, marked the mouth of the river Meinam
we had just left on the first preparatory stage of our
homeward journey; and, far back on the inland level, a larger
and loftier mass, the grove surrounding the great Paknam pagoda,
was the only thing on which the eye could rest from the vain
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: his surroundings. Then he finally realised where he was, and walked
on quickly to Bauer's room, his face still flushed, his hands
trembling. When he came out from the office again, he was his usual
quiet, humble self.
But the commissioner, with his now greater knowledge of the little
man's gifts and past, could not forget the incident. During the
afternoon he found himself repeating mechanically, "That dog - that
dog." But the words meant nothing to him, hard as he might try to
find the connection.
When the commissioner left for his home late that afternoon, Muller
re-entered the office to lay some papers on the desk. His duties
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The War in the Air by H. G. Wells: you do your private soldiers--you're jolly well mistaken. See?
I've 'ad about enough of you and your antics. I been thinking
you over, you and your war and your Empire and all the rot of it.
Rot it is! It's you Germans made all the trouble in Europe first
and last. And all for nothin'. Jest silly prancing! Jest
because you've got the uniforms and flags! 'Ere I was--I didn't
want to 'ave anything to do with you. I jest didn't care a 'eng
at all about you. Then you get 'old of me--steal me
practically--and 'ere I am, thousands of miles away from 'ome and
everything, and all your silly fleet smashed up to rags. And you
want to go on prancin' NOW! Not if 'I know it!
|
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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: "Good heavens, Cesar!" said Constance, "don't send a single invitation
to people whom you only know as customers. Are you going to invite the
Princesse de Blamont-Chavry, who is more nearly related to your
godmother, the late Marquise d'Uxelles, than the Duc de Lenoncourt?
You surely don't mean to invite the two Messieurs de Vandenesse,
Monsieur de Marsay, Monsieur de Ronquerolles, Monsieur d'Aiglemont, in
short, all your customers? You are mad; your honors have turned your
head!"
"Well, but there's Monsieur le Comte de Fontaine and his family, hein?
--the one that always went by the name of GRAND-JACQUES,--and the
YOUNG SCAMP, who was the Marquis de Montauran, and Monsieur de la
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
