| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: chandelier were burning, it looked merely a serious old chamber with
its massive mahogany First Empire furniture, its hangings and chair
coverings of yellow velvet, stamped with a large design. Entering
it, one was in an atmosphere of cold dignity, of ancient manners, of
a vanished age, the air of which seemed devotional.
Opposite the armchair, however, in which the count's mother had
died--a square armchair of formal design and inhospitable padding,
which stood by the hearthside--the Countess Sabine was seated in a
deep and cozy lounge, the red silk upholsteries of which were soft
as eider down. It was the only piece of modern furniture there, a
fanciful item introduced amid the prevailing severity and clashing
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: becomes autosuggestion, hence it is pathological. Then follow
the practical consequences, and we have developed, on the one
side, pathological lying, and, on the other, swindling, i.e.,
criminality. Purely symptomatically pseudologia phantastica is
characterized by the groundlessness of the fabrications, the
heightened suggestibility of the patient, and in its wake arises
double consciousness and inadequate powers of reproduction of
reality.
[17] ``Ein Beitrag zur Kasuistik der Pseudologia phantastica.''
Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur Psychiatrie, LXVIII, Heft 4; pp.
482-500.
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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 Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: "'All right, Tom,' I answered. 'I will when I have killed those three
other lions,' for by this time I was bent on shooting them as I never
remember being bent on anything before or since. 'You can go if you
like, or you can get up a tree.'
"He considered the position a little, and then he very wisely got up a
tree. I wish that I had done the same.
"Meanwhile I had found my knife, which had an extractor in it, and
succeeded after some difficulty in pulling out the cartridge which had
so nearly been the cause of my death, and removing the obstruction in
the barrel. It was very little thicker than a postage-stamp; certainly
not thicker than a piece of writing-paper. This done, I loaded the gun,
Long Odds |
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 Betty Zane by Zane Grey: shore. The pallid face of the man clinging to the log showed that he was
nearly exhausted, and that he had been rescued in the nick of time. When
Alfred reached shoal water he slipped his arm around the man, who was unable
to stand, and carried him ashore.
The rescued man wore a buckskin hunting shirt and leggins and moccasins of the
same material, all very much the worse for wear. The leggins were torn into
tatters and the moccasins worn through. His face was pinched with suffering
and one arm was bleeding from a gunshot wound near the shoulder.
"Can you not speak? Who are you?" asked Clarke, supporting the limp figure.
The man made several efforts to answer, and finally said something that to
Alfred sounded like "Zane," then he fell to the ground unconscious.
Betty Zane |
