| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: eyes fell on nothing directly, but with a sidelong glance that
deprecated the scorn and anger of the world--she was witless, she knew
it), as she clutched the banisters and hauled herself upstairs and
rolled from room to room, she sang. Rubbing the glass of the long
looking-glass and leering sideways at her swinging figure a sound
issued from her lips--something that had been gay twenty years before
on the stage perhaps, had been toothless, bonneted, care-taking woman,
was robbed of meaning, was like the voice of witlessness, humour,
persistency itself, trodden down but springing up again, so that as she
lurched, dusting, wiping, she seemed to say how it was one long sorrow
and trouble, how it was getting up and going to bed again, and bringing
To the Lighthouse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "Just one more question," he said hurriedly. "Did you see the dogs
on Monday night?"
"Yes. I heard them scratching at the door leading to the basement
as I went upstairs, and so I turned around and went down and opened
the door and let them run down into the cellar."
Penfield snapped shut his notebook. "I am greatly obliged, Mrs.
Brewster; we will not detain you longer."
The morgue master stepped forward and helped the pretty widow down
from the platform.
"Colonel McIntyre is here now," he told the coroner.
"Ah, then bring him in," and Penfield, while awaiting the arrival
The Red Seal |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Thank God, Professor," whispered Mr. Philander, fervently,
"you are not dead, then?"
"Tut, tut, Mr. Philander, tut, tut," cautioned Professor
Porter, "I do not know with accuracy as yet."
With infinite solicitude Professor Porter wiggled his right
arm--joy! It was intact. Breathlessly he waved his left arm
above his prostrate body--it waved!
"Most remarkable, most remarkable," he said.
"To whom are you signaling, Professor?" asked Mr. Philander,
in an excited tone.
Professor Porter deigned to make no response to this
Tarzan of the Apes |
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 Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: the country districts) any one wiser or more refined than an
official or a priest drawn from the peasant class, it may lose the
belief that any standard higher than that is needed; and, all but
forgetting the very existence of civilisation, sink contented into a
dead level of intellectual mediocrity and moral barbarism, crying,
"Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."
A nation in such a temper will surely be taken at its word. Where
the carcase is, there the eagles will be gathered together; and
there will not be wanting to such nations--as there were not wanting
in old Greece and Rome--despots who will give them all they want,
and more, and say to them: "Yes, you shall eat and drink; and yet
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