| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: danced, swung round, twinkled, bounded, slid and
leapt again in time with a certain rough barbaric
measure; the sounds themselves were all discords,
but discords with a purpose; discords that took each
other by the hand and kicked and stamped their
brutal way together toward some objective point.
I led Fothergil into a corner.
"What is it?" I whispered. It is always well, at
one of Hermione's soul fights, to get your cue be-
for the conversation officially starts. If you don't
know what is going to be talked about before the
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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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: to anyone who would pay its rates and taxes."
"How long is it since the house acquired this sinister character?"
"That I can scarcely tell you, but very many years since. The old
woman I spoke of, said it was haunted when she rented it between
thirty and forty years ago. The fact is, that my life has been
spent in the East Indies, and in the civil service of the Company.
I returned to England last year, on inheriting the fortune of an
uncle, among whose possessions was the house in question. I found
it shut up and uninhabited. I was told that it was haunted, that
no one would inhabit it. I smiled at what seemed to me so idle a
story. I spent some money in repairing it, added to its old-
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: 'he had the right to live'![8] In what part of Hellas, tell me, sir,
do Hellenes keep a truce with traitors, double-dyed deserters, and
tyrants? Moreover, I must remind you that you passed a resolution--if
I mistake not, it stands recorded in your parliamentary minutes--that
'renegades are liable to be apprehended[9] in any of the allied
cities.' Now, here is a renegade restoring himself without any common
decree of the allied states: will any one tell me on what ground this
person did not deserve to die? What I maintain, sirs, is that if you
put me to death, by so doing you will be aiding and abetting your
bitterest foe; while, by a verdict sanctioning the justice of my
conduct, you will prove your willingness to protect the interests not
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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 Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: (the qualities of) the mother that belong to him, to the end of his
life he will be free from all peril.
3. Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his
nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion.
Let him keep his mouth open, and (spend his breath) in the promotion
of his affairs, and all his life there will be no safety for him.
4. The perception of what is small is (the secret of clear-
sightedness; the guarding of what is soft and tender is (the secret
of) strength.
5. Who uses well his light,
Reverting to its (source so) bright,
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