| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: of one exceeding well content with life. He was hailed by
the two others with exclamations of surprise and welcome.
'And did you try the detective business?' inquired Paul.
'No,' returned Harry. 'Oh yes, by the way, I did though:
twice, and got caught out both times. But I thought I should
find my - my wife here?' he added, with a kind of proud
confusion.
'What? are you married?' cried Somerset.
'Oh yes,' said Harry, 'quite a long time: a month at least.'
'Money?' asked Challoner.
'That's the worst of it,' Desborough admitted. 'We are
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: instantly lowered, glance was the impression that her hair was
magnificently red and her eyes very black. It was a troubling
effect, but it had been evanescent; he had forgotten it almost till
very unexpectedly he saw her coming down the terrace slow and
eager, as if she were restraining herself, and with a rhythmic
upward undulation of her whole figure. The light from an open
window fell across her path, and suddenly all that mass of arranged
hair appeared incandescent, chiselled and fluid, with the daring
suggestion of a helmet of burnished copper and the flowing lines of
molten metal. It kindled in him an astonished admiration. But he
said nothing of it to his friend the Editor. Neither did he tell
Within the Tides |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: words, _Drinc hael_, and partook of a cup which
was handed to him by the sewer. The same courtesy
was offered to Ivanhoe, who pledged his father
in silence, supplying the usual speech by an inclination
of his head, lest his voice should have been
recognised.
When this introductory ceremony was performed,
Cedric arose, and, extending his hand to Richard,
conducted him into a small and very rude chapel,
which was excavated, as it were, out of one of the
external buttresses. As there was no opening,
Ivanhoe |
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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: once more after a long voyage. Having convinced himself that nothing
had changed while he was asleep, he presently perceived the stranger
on guard, and he, on his part, gazed at the patriarchal draper as
Humboldt may have scrutinized the first electric eel he saw in
America. Monsieur Guillaume wore loose black velvet breeches, pepper-
and-salt stockings, and square toed shoes with silver buckles. His
coat, with square-cut fronts, square-cut tails, and square-cut collar
clothed his slightly bent figure in greenish cloth, finished with
white metal buttons, tawny from wear. His gray hair was so accurately
combed and flattened over his yellow pate that it made it look like a
furrowed field. His little green eyes, that might have been pierced
|
