| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: your pen should, by accident, write my name. A name, written on a
letter, is not a friend's opera-hat, which you might have taken,
carelessly, on leaving a ball."
Eugene, discomfited, looked at the marquise with an air that was both
stupid and conceited. He felt that he was becoming ridiculous; and
after stammering a few juvenile phrases he left the room.
A few days later the marquise acquired undeniable proofs that Eugene
had told the truth. For the last fortnight she has not been seen in
society.
The marquis tells all those who ask him the reason of this
seclusion:--
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: for all that followed was startlingly real, so real that now
sitting here in the broad, full sunlight of the morning,
I cannot in the least believe that it was all sleep.
I was not alone. The room was the same, unchanged in any
way since I came into it. I could see along the floor,
in the brilliant moonlight, my own footsteps marked where I had
disturbed the long accumulation of dust. In the moonlight opposite
me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner.
I thought at the time that I must be dreaming when I saw them,
they threw no shadow on the floor. They came close to me,
and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together.
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: the darkness, but so far away as not to lessen the sense of
isolation. For the making of a story here were fine
conditions. I was besides moved with the spirit of
emulation, for I had just finished my third or fourth perusal
of THE PHANTOM SHIP. 'Come,' said I to my engine, 'let us
make a tale, a story of many years and countries, of the sea
and the land, savagery and civilisation; a story that shall
have the same large features, and may be treated in the same
summary elliptic method as the book you have been reading and
admiring.' I was here brought up with a reflection
exceedingly just in itself, but which, as the sequel shows, I
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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 Golden Threshold by Sarojini Naidu: Shall any fragile curtain hide your beauty from my kiss?
What war is this of THEE and ME? Give o'er the wanton strife,
You are the heart within my heart, the life within my life.
AUTUMN SONG
Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow,
The sunset hangs on a cloud;
A golden storm of glittering sheaves,
Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves,
The wild wind blows in a cloud.
Hark to a voice that is calling
To my heart in the voice of the wind:
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