| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: burning, a fagot for hell-fire?'
'I'm very sorry, ma'am,' said Francie. 'I humbly beg the
Lord's pardon, and yours, for my wickedness.'
'H'm,' grunted the lady. 'Did ye see nobody else?'
'No, ma'am,' said Francie, with the face of an angel, 'except
Jock Crozer, that gied me the billet.'
'Jock Crozer!' cried the lady. 'I'll Crozer them! Crozers
indeed! What next? Are we to repose the lives of a
suffering remnant in Crozers? The whole clan of them wants
hanging, and if I had my way of it, they wouldna want it
long. Are you aware, sir, that these Crozers killed your
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: MELIBOEUS
I grudge you not the boon, but marvel more,
Such wide confusion fills the country-side.
See, sick at heart I drive my she-goats on,
And this one, O my Tityrus, scarce can lead:
For 'mid the hazel-thicket here but now
She dropped her new-yeaned twins on the bare flint,
Hope of the flock- an ill, I mind me well,
Which many a time, but for my blinded sense,
The thunder-stricken oak foretold, oft too
From hollow trunk the raven's ominous cry.
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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 Pupil by Henry James: railway-carriage - you could never tell by which class they would
travel - where Pemberton helped them to stow away a wonderful
collection of bundles and bags. The explanation of this manoeuvre
was that they had determined to spend the summer "in some bracing
place"; but in Paris they dropped into a small furnished apartment
- a fourth floor in a third-rate avenue, where there was a smell on
the staircase and the portier was hateful - and passed the next
four months in blank indigence.
The better part of this baffled sojourn was for the preceptor and
his pupil, who, visiting the Invalides and Notre Dame, the
Conciergerie and all the museums, took a hundred remunerative
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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 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft: stopped in the yard, and said to me, "William, I
thought we were coming among coloured people?" I
replied, "It is all right; these are the same." "No,"
she said, "it is not all right, and I am not going to
stop here; I have no confidence whatever in white
people, they are only trying to get us back to
slavery." She turned round and said, "I am
going right off." The old lady then came out, with
her sweet, soft, and winning smile, shook her heartily
by the hand, and kindly said, "How art thou, my
dear? We are all very glad to see thee and thy
Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom |
