| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: that all the cups found contained sugar, which Mademoiselle
Cynthia never took in her coffee. My attention was attracted by
the story of Annie about some 'salt' on the tray of coco which
she took every night to Mrs. Inglethorp's room. I accordingly
secured a sample of that coco, and sent it to be analysed."
"But that had already been done by Dr. Bauerstein," said Lawrence
quickly.
"Not exactly. The analyst was asked by him to report whether
strychnine was, or was not, present. He did not have it tested,
as I did, for a narcotic."
"For a narcotic?"
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: on the shoulder with his gloved hand.
'May Christ bless you,' replied Kasatsky without replacing his
cap and bowing his bald head.
He rejoiced particularly at this meeting, because he had
disregarded the opinion of men and had done the simplest, easiest
thing--humbly accepted twenty kopeks and given them to his
comrade, a blind beggar. The less importance he attached to the
opinion of men the more did he feel the presence of God within
him.
For eight months Kasatsky tramped on in this manner, and in the
ninth month he was arrested for not having a passport. This
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: for the people whither I had sent Macropha and Nada were tributary to
the Halakazi tribe, and that chief of the Halakazi who sat in the
place of Galazi the Wolf had quarrelled with them, and fallen on them
by night and eaten them up.
As I learned afterwards, the cause of their destruction, as in later
days it was the cause of the slaying of the Halakazi, was the beauty
of Nada and nothing else, for the fame of her loveliness had gone
about the land, and the old chief of the Halakazi had commanded that
the girl should be sent to his kraal to live there, that her beauty
might shine upon his place like the sun, and that, if so she willed,
she should choose a husband from the great men of the Halakazi. But
Nada the Lily |
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 Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: Humpty Dumpty began again. `They've a temper, some of them--
particularly verbs, they're the proudest--adjectives you can do
anything with, but not verbs--however, _I_ can manage the whole
lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what _I_ say!'
`Would you tell me, please,' said Alice `what that means?'
`Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty,
looking very much pleased. `I meant by "impenetrability" that
we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well
if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't
mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'
`That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a
Through the Looking-Glass |
