| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: Franz did not notice it, and indeed a far keener observer than the
slow-witted old butler might have failed to see the sudden gleam
which shot up in the grey eyes behind the heavy spectacles, might
have failed to notice the tightening of the lips beneath the blond
moustache, or the tenseness of the slight frame under the assumed
embonpoint. Muller's every nerve was tingling, but he had himself
completely in hand.
"What do we owe you?" asked Franz.
"They'll send you a bill from the office. It won't amount to much.
I must be getting on now."
Muller hastened out of the door and down the street to the nearest
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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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: paint, offers everything that it has entered into people's hearts
to wish for in the idleness of a sanatorium; and the 'Chateau des
Morts' is still at the top of the town; and the fort and the jetty
are still at the foot, only there are now two jetties; and - I am
out of breath. (To be continued in our next.)
For myself, I have come famously through the journey; and as I have
written this letter (for the first time for ever so long) with ease
and even pleasure, I think my head must be better. I am still no
good at coming down hills or stairs; and my feet are more
consistently cold than is quite comfortable. But, these apart, I
feel well; and in good spirits all round.
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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 Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: about that solitary journey round the world.
But children were not the only new topic in Amanda's talk. She set
herself with an ingenious subtlety to remind her husband that there
were other men in the world. The convenient fags, sometimes a
little embarrassed, found their inobtrusive services being brought
into the light before Benham's eyes. Most of them were much older
men than himself, elderly philanderers of whom it seemed to him no
sane man need be jealous, men often of forty or more, but one was a
contemporary, Sir Philip Easton, a man with a touch of Spanish blood
and a suggestion of Spanish fire, who quite manifestly was very much
in love with Amanda and of whom she spoke with a slight perceptible
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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 End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: a man of an old-fashioned and gouty aspect, with hair
as white as his own, but with shaved, florid cheeks, wear-
ing a necktie--almost a neckcloth--whose stiff ends pro-
jected far beyond his chin; with round legs, round arms,
a round body, a round face--generally producing the
effect of his short figure having been distended by means
of an air-pump as much as the seams of his clothing
would stand. This was the Master-Attendant of the
port. A master-attendant is a superior sort of harbor-
master; a person, out in the East, of some consequence
in his sphere; a Government official, a magistrate for
End of the Tether |
