| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: nay, even of the wide plain that lies between us and the sea--have
in themselves the materials of enlightening books."
"For instance, sir?" said Adam, venturing a question.
"Well, look at those hills which surround the main one where the
site for the Castle was wisely chosen--on the highest ground. Take
the others. There is something ostensible in each of them, and in
all probability something unseen and unproved, but to be imagined,
also."
"For instance?" continued Adam.
"Let us take them SERIATIM. That to the east, where the trees are,
lower down--that was once the location of a Roman temple, possibly
Lair of the White Worm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: the door only added to his irritation. He couldn't
possibly have connected this troublesome lunatic
with the sinking of a ship in Eastbay, of which
there had been a rumour in the Darnford market-
place. And I daresay the man inside had been very
near to insanity on that night. Before his excite-
ment collapsed and he became unconscious he was
throwing himself violently about in the dark, roll-
ing on some dirty sacks, and biting his fists with
rage, cold, hunger, amazement, and despair.
"He was a mountaineer of the eastern range of
Amy Foster |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: husband was the tool of the Grand Master. The cardinal, convinced by
the affair of the Vidame de Chartres, that Catherine was more
unconquered than invulnerable as to love, was paying court to her. The
play of all these passions strangely complicated those of politics,--
making, as it were, a double game of chess, in which both parties had
to watch the head and heart of their opponent, in order to know, when
a crisis came, whether the one would betray the other.
Though she was constantly in presence of the Cardinal de Lorraine or
of Duc Francois de Guise, who both distrusted her, the closest and
ablest enemy of Catherine de' Medici was her daughter-in-law, Queen
Mary, a fair little creature, malicious as a waiting-maid, proud as a
|
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 House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: was a circumstance, very trifling in itself, which impressed her
with an odd degree of horror. She had heard of the anathema flung
by Maule, the executed wizard, against Colonel Pyncheon and his
posterity,--that God would give them blood to drink,--and likewise
of the popular notion, that this miraculous blood might now and
then be heard gurgling in their throats. The latter scandal
--as became a person of sense, and, more especially, a member of
the Pyncheon family--Phoebe had set down for the absurdity which
it unquestionably was. But ancient superstitions, after being
steeped in human hearts and embodied in human breath, and passing
from lip to ear in manifold repetition, through a series of
House of Seven Gables |
