| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: destroy another. So that, in short, the question comes all to
this: whether is the nobler being of the two, that which, by a
lazy contemplation of four inches round, by an overweening pride,
feeding, and engendering on itself, turns all into excrement and
venom, producing nothing at all but flybane and a cobweb; or that
which, by a universal range, with long search, much study, true
judgment, and distinction of things, brings home honey and wax."
This dispute was managed with such eagerness, clamour, and warmth,
that the two parties of books, in arms below, stood silent a while,
waiting in suspense what would be the issue; which was not long
undetermined: for the bee, grown impatient at so much loss of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: and duties of a household. The fibs that she must invent, the reasons
she must find for conforming to my whims would tax the ingenuity of
some of us! . . . Claudine never wearies; you can always count upon
her. It is not love, I tell her, it is infatuation. She writes to me
every day; I do not read her letters; she found that out, but still
she writes. See here; there are two hundred letters in this casket.
She begs me to wipe my razors on one of her letters every day, and I
punctually do so. She thinks, and rightly, that the sight of her
handwriting will put me in mind of her.'
"La Palferine was dressing as he told us this. I took up the letter
which he was about to put to this use, read it, and kept it, as he did
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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 Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: The next morning I left the town.
I never saw her again.
Years afterwards I heard she had married and gone to America; it may or may
not be so--but the rose--the rose is in the box still! When my faith in
woman grows dim, and it seems that for want of love and magnanimity she can
play no part in any future heaven; then the scent of that small withered
thing comes back:--spring cannot fail us.
Matjesfontein,
South Africa.
III. "THE POLICY IN FAVOUR OF PROTECTION--".
Was it Right?--Was it Wrong?
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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 Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: Lesser Hill.
Mr. Salton, too, showed much interest in the job, and was constantly
coming in and out, nothing escaping his observation.
Since her marriage to Adam and their coming to stay at Doom Tower,
Mimi had been fettered by fear of the horrible monster at Diana's
Grove. But now she dreaded it no longer. She accepted the fact of
its assuming at will the form of Lady Arabella. She had still to
tax and upbraid her for her part in the unhappiness which had been
wrought on Lilla, and for her share in causing her death.
One evening, when Mimi entered her own room, she went to the window
and threw an eager look round the whole circle of sight. A single
Lair of the White Worm |
