| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: is pretty large, and the old house, like other places of the
kind, does not possess so much accommodation as the extent of the
outward walls appears to promise. But we can give you a
comfortable old-fashioned room, and I venture to suppose that
your campaigns have taught you to be glad of worse quarters."
The General shrugged his shoulders, and laughed. "I presume," he
said, "the worst apartment in your chateau is considerably
superior to the old tobacco-cask in which I was fain to take up
my night's lodging when I was in the Bush, as the Virginians call
it, with the light corps. There I lay, like Diogenes himself, so
delighted with my covering from the elements, that I made a vain
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: too far to cry for help, if I had dreamed of it. At last we came again
within sound of the sea. There was moonlight, though not much; and by
this I could see the three huge towers and broken battlements of
Tantallon, that old chief place of the Red Douglases. The horse was
picketed in the bottom of the ditch to graze, and I was led within, and
forth into the court, and thence into the tumble-down stone hall. Here
my conductors built a brisk fire in the midst of the pavement, for
there was a chill in the night. My hands were loosed, I was set by the
wall in the inner end, and (the Lowlander having produced provisions) I
was given oatmeal bread and a pitcher of French brandy. This done, I
was left once more alone with my three Highlandmen. They sat close by
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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 Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: about to make; but with that rapidity of intelligence which was
peculiar to her, this reply, ready arranged, presented itself to
her lips:
"I?" said she, with an accent of disdain in unison with that
which she had remarked in the voice of the young officer, "I,
sir? MY MASS? Lord de Winter, the corrupted Catholic, knows
very well that I am not of his religion, and this is a snare he
wishes to lay for me!"
"And of what religion are you, then, madame?" asked Felton, with
an astonishment which in spite of the empire he held over himself
he could not entirely conceal.
The Three Musketeers |
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 Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: velveteen trousers; a checked waistcoat, from which depended the brass
key of his silver watch by an iron chain which long usage had polished
till it shone like steel; a jacket with short tails, also of
velveteen, like that of the trousers; and around his neck a printed
cotton cravat much frayed by the rubbing of his beard.
On Sundays and fete-days Sauviat wore a frock-coat of maroon cloth, so
well taken care of that two new ones were all he bought in twenty
years. The living of galley-slaves would be thought sumptuous in
comparison with that of the Sauviats, who never ate meat except on the
great festivals of the Church. Before paying out the money absolutely
needed for their daily subsistence, Madame Sauviat would feel in the
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