| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: purple, which faded again more slowly to a watery green. My
visitor, who had watched these metamorphoses with a keen eye,
smiled, set down the glass upon the table, and then turned and
looked upon me with an air of scrutiny.
"And now," said he, "to settle what remains. Will you be
wise? will you be guided? will you suffer me to take this glass in
my hand and to go forth from your house without further parley? or
has the greed of curiosity too much command of you? Think before
you answer, for it shall be done as you decide. As you decide,
you shall be left as you were before, and neither richer nor
wiser, unless the sense of service rendered to a man in mortal
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Psychology of Revolution by Gustave le Bon: him with the representatives who were sent into the provinces,
who could not be supervised. The delegates of the Convention
examined all his sentences and approved of them up to the last.
If his cruelty and his summary fashion of trying the prisoners
before him had not been encouraged by his chiefs, he could not
have remained in power. In condemning Fouquier-Tinville, the
Convention condemned its own frightful system of government. It
understood this fact, and sent to the scaffold a number of
Terrorists whom Fouquier-Tinville had merely served as a faithful
agent.
Beside Fouquier-Tinville we may set Dumas, who presided over the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: to see me and make friends. Harry had been helping his father
since the early morning, and had stated his opinion that I should turn out
a "regular brick". Polly brought me a slice of apple,
and Dolly a piece of bread, and made as much of me as if I had been
the "Black Beauty" of olden time. It was a great treat to be petted again
and talked to in a gentle voice, and I let them see as well as I could
that I wished to be friendly. Polly thought I was very handsome,
and a great deal too good for a cab, if it was not for the broken knees.
"Of course there's no one to tell us whose fault that was," said Jerry,
"and as long as I don't know I shall give him the benefit of the doubt;
for a firmer, neater stepper I never rode. We'll call him `Jack',
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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 Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: against Dick its indignation was directed, in a hot flame of
mainly feminine anger.
But it sensed a mystery, too, and if it hated a jilt it loved a
mystery.
Nina had taken to going about with her small pointed chin held
high, and angrily she demanded that Elizabeth do the same.
"You know what they are saying, and yet you go about looking crushed."
"I can't act, Nina. I do go about."
And Nina had a softened moment.
"Don't think about him," she said. "He isn't sick, or he would
have had some one wire or write, and he isn't dead, or they'd have
The Breaking Point |
