| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: "The striking of the clock," I soliloquized, "proves that this
scene is not a phantasm."
"Margaret is fatigued," he said, rising. "May I come to-morrow?"
"It is my part only," replied Aunt Eliza, "to see that she is,
or is not, Cinderella."
"If you have ever thought of me, aunt, as an individual, you must
have seen that I am not averse to ashes."
He held my hand a moment, and then kissed me with a kiss of
appropriation.
"He is in love with you," she said, after he had gone. "I think
I know him. He has found beauty ignorant of itself; he will teach
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: work could be done locally on instruction from any solicitor,
so that the client, simply placing himself in the hands of one man,
could have his wishes carried out by him without further trouble.
"But," said he, "I could be at liberty to direct myself.
Is it not so?"
"Of course, " I replied, and "Such is often done by men of business,
who do not like the whole of their affairs to be known by any one person."
"Good!" he said,and then went on to ask about the means of making consignments
and the forms to be gone through, and of all sorts of difficulties
which might arise, but by forethought could be guarded against.
I explained all these things to him to the best of my ability, and he
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: merely a mode of manifestation. It is man's soul that Christ is
always looking for. He calls it 'God's Kingdom,' and finds it in
every one. He compares it to little things, to a tiny seed, to a
handful of leaven, to a pearl. That is because one realises one's
soul only by getting rid of all alien passions, all acquired
culture, and all external possessions, be they good or evil.
I bore up against everything with some stubbornness of will and
much rebellion of nature, till I had absolutely nothing left in the
world but one thing. I had lost my name, my position, my
happiness, my freedom, my wealth. I was a prisoner and a pauper.
But I still had my children left. Suddenly they were taken away
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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 Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: were in Hawaii upon a rivalry to do well: to help, to edify, to set
divine examples. You having (in one huge instance) failed, and
Damien succeeded, I marvel it should not have occurred to you that
you were doomed to silence; that when you had been outstripped in
that high rivalry, and sat inglorious in the midst of your well-
being, in your pleasant room - and Damien, crowned with glories and
horrors, toiled and rotted in that pigsty of his under the cliffs
of Kalawao - you, the elect who would not, were the last man on
earth to collect and propagate gossip on the volunteer who would
and did.
I think I see you - for I try to see you in the flesh as I write
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