| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: pity to bother them, they had so much on their hands. Twice I
thought I would give up and let the thing go; so twice I started to
leave, but immediately I thought what a figure I should cut
stepping out amongst the redeemed in such a rig, and that made me
hang back and come to anchor again. People got to eying me -
clerks, you know - wondering why I didn't get under way. I
couldn't stand this long - it was too uncomfortable. So at last I
plucked up courage and tipped the head clerk a signal. He says -
"What! you here yet? What's wanting?"
Says I, in a low voice and very confidential, making a trumpet with
my hands at his ear -
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: wound?"
"Nothing so startling has happened to me," he said. "A bullet
wound! Things must be lively at Sunnyside."
"I didn't say it was at Sunnyside. But as it happens, it was.
If any such case comes to you, will it be too much trouble for
you to let me know?"
"I shall be only too happy," he said. "I understand you have had
a fire up there, too. A fire and shooting in one night is rather
lively for a quiet place like that."
"It is as quiet as a boiler-shop," I replied, as I turned to go.
"And you are still going to stay?"
The Circular Staircase |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: charities, the churchwarden, the member of parliament, and the
generous patron of his relatives his self-approbation struggling
with the instinctive sense of baseness in the money-hunter, the
ignorant and greedy filcher of the labor of others, the seller of
his own mind and manhood for luxuries and delicacies that he was
too lowlived to enjoy, and for the society of people who made him
feel his inferiority at every turn."
"And the man to whom you owe everything you possess," said
Erskine boldly.
"I possess very little. Everything he left me, except a few
pictures, I spent long ago, and even that was made by his slaves
|
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 Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: laughing to himself at the asperity and uncompromising spirit of my
replies. At length, however, he withdrew, and went to the lady of
the house, apparently for the purpose of asking an introduction to
me, for, shortly after, they both came up, and she introduced him
as Mr. Huntingdon, the son of a late friend of my uncle's. He
asked me to dance. I gladly consented, of course; and he was my
companion during the remainder of my stay, which was not long, for
my aunt, as usual, insisted upon an early departure.
I was sorry to go, for I had found my new acquaintance a very
lively and entertaining companion. There was a certain graceful
ease and freedom about all he said and did, that gave a sense of
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
