| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: straightened herself, and reached out for the paper, which she
had dropped.
"It's the man! I should know him anywhere!" she cried in a voice
that sounded in her own ears like a scream.
Parvis's voice seemed to come to her from far off, down endless,
fog-muffled windings.
"Mrs. Boyne, you're not very well. Shall I call somebody? Shall
I get a glass of water?"
"No, no, no!" She threw herself toward him, her hand frantically
clenching the newspaper. "I tell you, it's the man! I KNOW him!
He spoke to me in the garden!"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: shot. They say he sat as still as if he was cut out of stone, with his
arms round his legs; and some of the fellows gave him blows about the head
and face before they took him off to shoot him. Now, that's the sort of
thing I can't do. It makes me sick here, somehow." Peter put his hand
rather low down over the pit of his stomach. "I'll shoot as many as you
like if they'll run, but they mustn't be tied up."
"I was there when that man was shot," said the stranger.
"Why, you seem to have been everywhere," said Peter. "Have you seen Cecil
Rhodes?"
"Yes, I have seen him," said the stranger.
"Now he's death on niggers," said Peter Halket, warming his hands by the
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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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: seize the Zulus, let him do so himself. Are you mad or drunk that you
should think that Allan would wish to betray Marie to the Kaffirs, to
say nothing of the rest of us?" and she began to wave an extremely dirty
"vatdoek", or dishcloth, which she always carried about with her and
used for every purpose, towards Kambula as a sign of peace.
Now the Boers gave way, and Marais, seeing himself in a minority,
glowered at me in silence.
"Ask these white people, O Macumazahn," said Kambula, "who is their
captain, for to the captain I would speak."
I translated the question, and Marais answered:
"I am."
Marie |
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 Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: "You have saved me from ruin, Alan. I cannot forget that,"
said Dorian simply.
As soon as Campbell had left, he went upstairs. There was a horrible
smell of nitric acid in the room. But the thing that had been sitting
at the table was gone.
CHAPTER 15
That evening, at eight-thirty, exquisitely dressed and wearing a large
button-hole of Parma violets, Dorian Gray was ushered into Lady
Narborough's drawing-room by bowing servants. His forehead was throbbing
with maddened nerves, and he felt wildly excited, but his manner
as he bent over his hostess's hand was as easy and graceful as ever.
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
