| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: The barges wash
Drifting logs
Down Greenwich reach
Past the Isle of Dogs.
Weialala leia
Wallala leialala
Elizabeth and Leicester
Beating oars 280
The stern was formed
A gilded shell
Red and gold
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: Seeing Malahin, the guard sighs guiltily and throws up his
hands.
"We can't go number fourteen," he says. "We are very much behind
time. Another train has gone with that number."
The station-master rapidly looks through some forms, then turns
his beaming blue eyes upon Malahin, and, his face radiant with
smiles and freshness, showers questions on him:
"You are Mr. Malahin? You have the cattle? Eight vanloads? What
is to be done now? You are late and I let number fourteen go in
the night. What are we to do now?"
The young man discreetly takes hold of the fur of Malahin's coat
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: Peace and Mrs. Thompson. Things still prospering, Peace found
himself able to remove from Lambeth to Crane Court, Greenwich,
and before long to take a couple of adjoining houses in
Billingsgate Street in the same district. These he furnished in
style. In one he lived with Mrs. Thompson, while Mrs. Peace and
her son, Willie, were persuaded after some difficulty to leave
Hull and come to London to dwell in the other.
But Greenwich was not to the taste of Mrs. Thompson. To gratify
her wish, Peace, some time in May, 1877, removed the whole party
to a house, No. 5, East Terrace, Evelina Road, Peckham. He paid
thirty pounds a year for it, and obtained permission to build a
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
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 An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: he did not know that this girl of twenty-three was thinking of
overturning Bonaparte as she lay there twisting with slender fingers
the frogged lacing of her riding-habit, he was well aware that she was
agitated by some great project.
Mademoiselle Goujet was one of those unmarried women whose portrait
can be drawn in one word which will enable the least imaginative mind
to picture her; she was ungainly. She knew her own ugliness and was
the first to laugh at it, showing her long teeth, yellow as her
complexion and her bony hands. She was gay and hearty. She wore the
famous short gown of former days, a very full skirt with pockets full
of keys, a cap with ribbons and a false front. She was forty years of
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