| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: shadows.'
The pair fell into silence, the Doctor tapping on his empty glass.
The carriage swung forth out of the valleys on that open balcony of
high-road that runs along the front of Grunewald, looking down on
Gerolstein. Far below, a white waterfall was shining to the stars
from the falling skirts of forest, and beyond that, the night stood
naked above the plain. On the other hand, the lamp-light skimmed
the face of the precipices, and the dwarf pine-trees twinkled with
all their needles, and were gone again into the wake. The granite
roadway thundered under wheels and hoofs; and at times, by reason of
its continual winding, Otto could see the escort on the other side
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from One Basket by Edna Ferber: tennis--like the rich girls-- like the girls that's making such a
fuss over the soldiers."
Angie Hatton was not laughing. So, after a moment's hesitation,
Tessie brought out the worst of it. "And French. I'd like to
learn to talk French."
Old Man Hatton had been surveying his shoes, his mouth grim. He
looked at Angie now and smiled a little. "Well, Angie, it looks
as if you'd found your job right here at home, doesn't it? This
young lady's just one of hundreds, I suppose. Thousands. You
can have the whole house for them, if you want it, Angie, and the
grounds, and all the money you need. I guess we've kind of
One Basket |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: and then he was a singularly helpless person. He had not the remotest
idea what he ought to do. The only thing he seems to have done was
to visit all the ministers of religion he could find in the place
to borrow a passage home. But he was much too dirty and incoherent--
and his story far too incredible for them. I met him quite by chance.
It was close upon sunset, and I was walking out after my siesta
on the road to Dunn's Battery, when I met him--I was rather bored,
and with a whole evening on my hands--luckily for him. He was trudging
dismally towards the town. His woebegone face and the quasi-clerical
cut of his dust-stained, filthy costume caught my humour. Our eyes met.
He hesitated. "Sir," he said, with a catching of the breath, "could
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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 Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: grandmother's father, with thick, black eyebrows, a gray wig, and
a red kaftan.²
This Volkónsky built all the buildings of
Yásnaya Polyána. He was a model squire,
intelligent and proud, and enjoyed the great respect of all the
neighborhood.
On the ground floor, under the drawing-room, next to the
entrance-hall, my father built his study. He had a semi-circular
niche made in the wall, and stood a marble bust of his favorite
dead brother Nikolái in it. This bust was made abroad
from a death-mask, and my father told us that it was very like,
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