| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: show footmarks, flapping the stone floor behind me with my pocket
handkerchief, I retired and continued my investigations of that
wonderful marble deposit from the bottom of the quarry, to which,
having re-arranged the bushes, I descended by another route,
leaping like a buck from stone to stone.
It was just as well that I did so, for a few minutes later Dr.
Rodd appeared.
"Made a good job of your operation?" I asked cheerfully.
"Pretty fair, thanks," he answered, "although that Kaffir tried
to brain the nurse-man when he was coming out of the anesthetic.
But are you interested in geology?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: "She did transgress, that's true. She was pious, God-fearing, but
she did not keep her maiden purity. It is a sin, of course, a
great sin, there's no doubt about it, but to make up for it there
is, maybe, noble blood in me. Maybe I am only a peasant by class,
but in nature a noble gentleman."
The "noble gentleman" uttered all this in a soft, sugary tenor,
wrinkling up his narrow forehead and emitting creaking sounds
from his red, frozen little nose. Ptaha listened and looked
askance at him in wonder, continually shrugging his shoulders.
After going nearly five miles the constables and the tramp sat
down on a mound to rest.
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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 The Virginian by Owen Wister: "It don't trouble him much," one said, having read nothing in the
Virginian's face.
"It may trouble his girl some," said another.
"She'll not know," said a third, "until it's over."
"He'll not tell her?"
"I wouldn't. It's no woman's business."
"Maybe that's so. Well, it would have suited me to have Trampas
die sooner."
"How would it suit you to have him live longer?" inquired a
member of the opposite faction, suspected of being himself a
cattle thief.
The Virginian |
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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: account of the theft of a patronymic. Worse than all is the rape of
ideas which these caterers for the public mind, like the slave-
merchants of Asia, tear from the paternal brain before they are well
matured, and drag half-clothed before the eyes of their blockhead of a
sultan, their Shahabaham, their terrible public, which, if they don't
amuse it, will cut off their heads by curtailing the ingots and
emptying their pockets.
This madness of our epoch reacted upon the illustrious Gaudissart, and
here follows the history of how it happened. A life-insurance company
having been told of his irresistible eloquence offered him an unheard-
of commission, which he graciously accepted. The bargain concluded and
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