| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: looked at the locksmith with as much steadiness as the locksmith
looked at him.
'They have been in prison now, a month. One conversation led to
many more; and the hangman soon found, from a comparison of time,
and place, and dates, that he had executed the sentence of the law
upon this woman, himself. She had been tempted by want--as so many
people are--into the easy crime of passing forged notes. She was
young and handsome; and the traders who employ men, women, and
children in this traffic, looked upon her as one who was well
adapted for their business, and who would probably go on without
suspicion for a long time. But they were mistaken; for she was
Barnaby Rudge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: him a drink of water. Well, I just ordered him off. I didn't think
anything more about it. But I remember now. I saw him hanging about the
camp the day after. Well, she came to me the next day and asked me for a
lot of cartridges. She'd never asked me for anything before. I asked her
what the devil a woman wanted with cartridges, and she said the old nigger
woman who helped carry in water to the garden said she couldn't stay and
help her any more unless she got some cartridges to give her son who was
going up north hunting elephants. The woman got over me to give her the
cartridges because she was going to have a kid, and she said she couldn't
do the watering without help. So I gave them her. I never put two and two
together.
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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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: 'Julia leaves this place tomorrow,' replied Morris. 'She must go
up to town and get the house ready, and find servants. We shall
all follow in three days.'
'Oh, brayvo!' cried John. 'But why?'
'I've found it out, John,' returned his brother gently.
'It? What?' enquired John.
'Why Michael won't compromise,' said Morris. 'It's because he
can't. It's because Masterman's dead, and he's keeping it dark.'
'Golly!' cried the impressionable John. 'But what's the use? Why
does he do it, anyway?'
'To defraud us of the tontine,' said his brother.
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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 Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: foot it gingerly, clutching for support to sprays of poison
oak, the proper product of the country. Herein was, on
either hand, a triple tier of beds, where miners had once
lain; and the other gable was pierced by a sashless window
and a doorless doorway opening on the air of heaven, five
feet above the ground. As for the third room, which entered
squarely from the ground level, but higher up the hill and
farther up the canyon, it contained only rubbish and the
uprights for another triple tier of beds.
The whole building was overhung by a bold, lion-like, red
rock. Poison oak, sweet bay trees, calcanthus, brush, and
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