| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: down the early Greek bucks by seven on Monday evening. By the same
midnight they had, as Billy expressed it, called the turn on Plato.
Tuesday was a second day of concentrated swallowing. Oscar had taken
them through the thought of many centuries. There had been
intermissions for lunch and dinner only; and the weather was exceedingly
hot. The pale-skinned Oscar stood this strain better than the
unaccustomed Bertie and Billy. Their jovial eyes had grown hollow
to-night, although their minds were going gallantly, as you have
probably noticed. Their criticisms, slangy and abrupt, struck the
scholastic Oscar as flippancies which he must indulge, since the pay was
handsome. That these idlers should jump in with doubts and questions
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: there across the breadth of an armed Europe and after what
adventures I am afraid will never be known now. All his papers
were destroyed shortly before his death; but if there was amongst
them, as he affirmed, a concise record of his life, then I am
pretty sure it did not take up more than a half-sheet of foolscap
or so. This relative of ours happened to be an Austrian officer,
who had left the service after the battle of Austerlitz. Unlike
Mr. Nicholas B., who concealed his decorations, he liked to
display his honourable discharge in which he was mentioned as
unschreckbar (fearless) before the enemy. No conjunction could
seem more unpromising, yet it stands in the family tradition that
Some Reminiscences |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: "I?"
"Yes, you."
"But for whom do you take me, sir?"
"And for whom do you take me?"
"I hope, sir, I take you for what you are, -- that is to
say, for the honorable Mynheer van Systens, Burgomaster of
Haarlem, and President of the Horticultural Society."
"And what is it you told me just now?"
"I told you, sir, that my tulip has been stolen."
"Then your tulip is that of Mynheer Boxtel. Well, my child,
you express yourself very badly. The tulip has been stolen,
The Black Tulip |
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 Reef by Edith Wharton: aid!" She lifted to him the look of happy laughter that
sometimes brushed her with a gleam of spring.
Darrow watched her hasten along the path between the
dripping chrysanthemums and enter the lodge. After she had
gone in he paced up and down outside in the drizzle, waiting
to learn if she had any message to send back to the house;
and after the lapse of a few minutes she came out again.
The child, she said, was badly, though not dangerously,
hurt, and the village doctor, who was already on hand, had
asked that the surgeon, already summoned from Francheuil,
should be told to bring with him certain needful appliances.
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