| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: party, to be taken prisoner as he rode in the vanguard of
France, and stereotyped for all men in this heroic attitude,
was to taste untimeously the honours of the grave. Of him,
as of the dead, it would be ungenerous to speak evil; what
little energy he had displayed would be remembered with
piety, when all that he had done amiss was courteously
forgotten. As English folk looked for Arthur; as Danes
awaited the coming of Ogier; as Somersetshire peasants or
sergeants of the Old Guard expected the return of Monmouth or
Napoleon; the countrymen of Charles of Orleans looked over
the straits towards his English prison with desire and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: a hard man at all, but he had room in his brain only
for that one idea of lunacy. He was not imagina-
tive enough to ask himself whether the man might
not be perishing with cold and hunger. Meantime,
at first, the maniac made a great deal of noise in
the lodge. Mrs. Smith was screaming upstairs,
where she had locked herself in her bedroom; but
Amy Foster sobbed piteously at the kitchen door,
wringing her hands and muttering, 'Don't!
don't!' I daresay Smith had a rough time of it
that evening with one noise and another, and this
Amy Foster |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: although she had the opportunity--Longueville said to himself
that he was bound in honor not to speak. These reflections
were very soon made, but in the midst of them our young man,
thanks to a great agility of mind, found time to observe,
tacitly, that it was odd, just there, to see his "honor"
thrusting in its nose. Miss Vivian, in her own good time,
would doubtless mention to Gordon the little incident of Siena.
It was Bernard's fancy, for a moment, that he already knew it,
and that the remark he had just uttered had an ironical accent;
but this impression was completely dissipated by the tone in
which he added--"All the same, you noticed her."
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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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: propose a thousand crowns if Maxime would obtain a license to sell
postage stamps for a young lady. Suzon, without the slightest
suspicion of the little scamp, a thoroughbred Paris street-boy into
whom prudence had been rubbed by repeated personal experience of the
police-courts, induced his master to receive him. Can you see the man
of business, with an uneasy eye, a bald forehead, and scarcely any
hair on his head, standing in his threadbare jacket and muddy boots--"
"What a picture of a Dun!" cried Lousteau.
"--standing before the Count, that image of flaunting Debt, in his
blue flannel dressing-gown, slippers worked by some Marquise or other,
trousers of white woolen stuff, and a dazzling shirt? There he stood,
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