| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: the steps which lead up from the hall to this room."
"Frequently."
"How often?"
"Well, some hundreds of times."
"Then how many are there?"
"How many? I don't know."
"Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is
just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps,
because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are
interested in these little problems, and since you are good
enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: head without any concealment whatever.
This master of the fine art was a personage and nothing more; but,
as I have said, there was an infinite diversity of temperament
amongst the masters of the fine art I have known. Some were great
impressionists. They impressed upon you the fear of God and
Immensity - or, in other words, the fear of being drowned with
every circumstance of terrific grandeur. One may think that the
locality of your passing away by means of suffocation in water does
not really matter very much. I am not so sure of that. I am,
perhaps, unduly sensitive, but I confess that the idea of being
suddenly spilt into an infuriated ocean in the midst of darkness
The Mirror of the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: months the poor man's tortures; but the respite was very useful to
Grossetete, who, foreseeing the end of his former clerk and partner,
obtained from him all the information necessary for the prompt
liquidation of the assets.
Graslin died in April, 1831, and the widow's grief yielded only to
Christian resignation. Veronique's first words, when the condition of
Monsieur Graslin's affairs were made known to her, were that she
abandoned her own fortune to pay the creditors; but it was found that
Graslin's own property was more than sufficient. Two months later, the
liquidation, of which Grossetete took charge, left to Madame Graslin
the estate of Montegnac and six hundred thousand francs, her whole
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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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: the bigness of a Salmon, but known by their different colour; and in
their best season they cut very white: and none of these have been
known to be caught with an angle, unless it were one that was caught
by Sir George Hastings, an excellent angler, and now with God: and he
hath told me, he thought that Trout bit not for hunger but wantonness;
and it is the rather to be believed, because both he, then, and many
others before him, have been curious to search into their bellies, what
the food was by which they lived; and have found out nothing by which
they might satisfy their curiosity.
Concerning which you are to take notice, that it is reported by good
authors, that grasshoppers and some fish have no mouths, but are
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