| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: age at the most, yielded themselves up to the poesy of their situation
with all the enthusiasm of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had
visited the Electorate and the banks of the Rhine as artists,
philosophers, and observers. When a man's destiny is scientific he is,
at their age, a being who is truly many-sided. Even in making love or
in travelling, an assistant-surgeon should be gathering up the
rudiments of his fortune or his coming fame.
The two young had therefore given themselves wholly to that deep
admiration which must affect all educated men on seeing the banks of
the Rhine and the scenery of Suabia between Mayenne and Cologne,--a
strong, rich, vigorously varied nature, filled with feudal memories,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: seemed to see the spirit of a certain woman haunting this kloof
as though she were waiting for some one."
"Indeed, and what may that woman be like?" I inquired carelessly.
As it chances I can see her now gliding backwards in front of you
just there, and therefore am able to answer your question,
Macumazahn. She is tall and slender, beautifully made, and
light-coloured for one of us black people. She has large eyes
like a buck, and those eyes are full of fire that does not come
from the sun but from within. Her face is tender yet proud, oh!
so proud that she makes me afraid. She wears a cloak of grey
fur, and about her neck there is a circlet of big blue beads with
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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 Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: should arrive. Sighs were expended on the wish that
she had taken more notice of the tunes he played on his
harp, that she had inquired more curiously of him which
were his favourite ballads among those the country-
girls sang. She indirectly inquired of Amby Seedling,
who had followed Izz from Talbothays, and by chance
Amby remembered that, amongst the snatches of melody in
which they had indulged at the dairyman's, to induce
the cows to let down their milk, Clare had seemed to
like "Cupid's Gardens", "I have parks, I have hounds",
and "The break o' the day"; and had seemed not to care
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
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 Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: Perhaps I am first this time." And, stepping back to the
writing-table he relighted the lamp.
"Mysterious enough for you?" he laughed, and glanced at my unfinished MS.
"A story, eh? From which I gather that the district is beastly healthy--
what, Petrie? Well, I can put some material in your way that, if sheer
uncanny mystery is a marketable commodity, ought to make you independent
of influenza and broken legs and shattered nerves and all the rest."
I surveyed him doubtfully, but there was nothing in his appearance
to justify me in supposing him to suffer from delusions. His eyes
were too bright, certainly, and a hardness now had crept over his face.
I got out the whisky and siphon, saying:
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
