| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: travelling. A quarter of a second ago these folks were millions of
miles from here. When they heard the last signal, all they had to
do was to wish, and here they are."
The prodigious choir struck up, -
We long to hear thy voice,
To see thee face to face.
It was noble music, but the uneducated chipped in and spoilt it,
just as the congregations used to do on earth.
The head of the procession began to pass, now, and it was a
wonderful sight. It swept along, thick and solid, five hundred
thousand angels abreast, and every angel carrying a torch and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: opening of the listing on Church Cliffs, deserted him now; he saw the
thing stark and in its true proportions, and not even the shouting of
the folk in the streets below, crying his name and acclaiming him their
champion, served to lighten the gloom that Wilding's words cast like a
cloud over his volatile heart. Alas, poor Monmouth! He was ever a
weathercock, and even as Wilding's words seemed to strike the courage
out of him, so did Grey's short contemptuous answer restore it.
"As it is, we'll thrust that throne over with our hands," said he after
a moment's pause.
"Aye," cried Monmouth. "We'll do it, God helping us!"
"Our dependence and trust is in the Lord of Hosts, in Whose Name we go
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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 The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "And the criminal will escape us in the meantime."
"He has no idea that he is suspected."
"But - you'll promise to be sensible this time, Muller?"
"Yes. But you will pardon me my present reticence, even towards
you? I - I don't want to be thought a dreamer again."
"As in the Kniepp case?"
"As in the Kniepp case," repeated the little man with a strange
smile. "So please allow me to go about it in my own way. I will
tell you all you want to know to-morrow."
"To-morrow, then."
"May I now continue to unfold my theories?" Bauer nodded and
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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 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: fire in the private room, gnawing his nails; there he dined,
sitting alone with his fears, the waiter visibly quailing before
his eye; and thence, when the night was fully come, he set forth
in the corner of a closed cab, and was driven to and fro about the
streets of the city. He, I say--I cannot say, I. That child of
Hell had nothing human; nothing lived in him but fear and hatred.
And when at last, thinking the driver had begun to grow
suspicious, he discharged the cab and ventured on foot, attired in
his misfitting clothes, an object marked out for observation, into
the midst of the nocturnal passengers, these two base passions
raged within him like a tempest. He walked fast, hunted by his
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
