| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: on the rear platform. He looked fagged, and absent-mindedly paid
our fares, to McKnight's delight.
"We will give him a run for his money," he declared, as the car
moved countryward. "Conductor, let us off at the muddiest lane
you can find."
At one o'clock, after a six-mile ramble, we entered a small country
hotel. We had seen nothing of Johnson for a half hour. At that
time he was a quarter of a mile behind us, and losing rapidly.
Before we had finished our luncheon he staggered into the inn. One
of his boots was under his arm, and his whole appearance was
deplorable. He was coated with mud, streaked with perspiration, and
The Man in Lower Ten |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: for you, every morning and night of our lives.'
I was in terror lest someone should come and see her lying there,
and I stooped and tried to raise her. But she only sank the
lower, until her tender little hands touched the rowels of my
spurs. I dared not move, At last I took a sudden resolution.
'Listen, then, Madame!' I said almost sternly, 'if you will not
rise. You forget everything, both how I stand, and how small my
power is! You forget that if I were to release your husband to-
day he would be seized within the hour by those who are still in
the village and who are watching every road--who have not ceased
to suspect my movements and my intentions. You forget, I say my
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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 Kenilworth by Walter Scott: innocence itself.
"What means this violence, my lord?" he answered, "or in what
can I have deserved it at your hand?"
"Give me proof," said the Earl vehemently, "that you have not
tampered with mine enemies."
"My lord," replied the old man, with dignity, "you can have no
better proof than that which you yourself elected. In that
turret I have spent the last twenty-four hours under the key
which has been in your own custody. The hours of darkness I have
spent in gazing on the heavenly bodies with these dim eyes, and
during those of light I have toiled this aged brain to complete
Kenilworth |
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 Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: Fluttered and hurried and throbbed. "Ah, woe that I hear you come,"
Rua cried in his grief, "a sorrowful sound to me,
Mounting far and faint from the resonant shore of the sea!
Woe in the song! for the grave breathes in the singers' breath,
And I hear in the tramp of the drums the beat of the heart of death.
Home of my youth! no more, through all the length of the years,
No more to the place of the echoes of early laughter and tears,
No more shall Rua return; no more as the evening ends,
To crowded eyes of welcome, to the reaching hands of friends."
All day long from the High-place the drums and the singing came,
And the even fell, and the sun went down, a wheel of flame;
Ballads |
