| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: 'Well, I'll try it once,' said Herrick. 'Fail me again. . .'
'No more now!' interrupted Davis. 'No more, old man!
Enough said. You've a riling tongue when your back's up,
Herrick. Just be glad we're friends again, the same as what I
am; and go tender on the raws; I'll see as you don't repent it.
We've been mighty near death this day--don't say whose fault
it was!--pretty near hell, too, I guess. We're in a mighty bad
line of life, us two, and ought to go easy with each other.'
He was maundering; yet it seemed as if he were maundering
with some design, beating about the bush of some communication
that he feared to make, or perhaps only talking against
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: think it more noble to become--that which they became--than the
wives of honest men.
If you will read fairly the literature of the Ancien Regime, whether
in France or elsewhere, you will see that my facts are true. If you
have human hearts in you, you will see in them, it seems to me, an
explanation of many a guillotinade and fusillade, as yet explained
only on the ground of madness--an hypothesis which (as we do not yet
in the least understand what madness is) is no explanation at all.
An age of decay, incoherence, and makeshift, varnish and gilding
upon worm-eaten furniture, and mouldering wainscot, was that same
Ancien Regime. And for that very reason a picturesque age; like one
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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 Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: is why I questioned you so closely about the mongoose and its
strange attack upon Lady Arabella. You will think it strange that I
should suspect the mistress of Diana's Grove, a beautiful woman of
aristocratic birth. Let me explain--the family seat is near my own
place, Doom Tower, and at one time I knew the family well. When
still a young girl, Lady Arabella wandered into a small wood near
her home, and did not return. She was found unconscious and in a
high fever--the doctor said that she had received a poisonous bite,
and the girl being at a delicate and critical age, the result was
serious--so much so that she was not expected to recover. A great
London physician came down but could do nothing--indeed, he said
Lair of the White Worm |
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 Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: began to remember how she came there--and why. She peered into the
smooth obscurity near her. She was alone. There was nothing there;
nothing near her, either living or dead.
The tide was creeping in quietly, putting out long impatient arms of
strange rivulets that ran towards the land between ridges of sand.
Under the night the pools grew bigger with mysterious rapidity, while
the great sea, yet far off, thundered in a regular rhythm along the
indistinct line of the horizon. Susan splashed her way back for a few
yards without being able to get clear of the water that murmured
tenderly all around and, suddenly, with a spiteful gurgle, nearly took
her off her feet. Her heart thumped with fear. This place was too big
Tales of Unrest |
