| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy: sake of Sir Percy, as well as for her own.
"What? Still dreaming and staring?" she said, with a merry
laugh, "you are most ungallant, Sir Andrew; and now I come to think of
it, you seemed more startled than pleased when you saw me just now. I
do believe, after all, that it was not concern for my health, nor yet
a remedy taught you by your grandmother that caused you to burn this
tiny scrap of paper. . . . I vow it must have been your lady love's
last cruel epistle you were trying to destroy. Now confess!" she
added, playfully holding up the scrap of paper, "does this contain her
final CONGE, or a last appeal to kiss and make friends?"
"Whichever it is, Lady Blakeney," said Sir Andrew, who was
The Scarlet Pimpernel |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Antonia by Willa Cather: of her personality, battered but not diminished, looking at me,
speaking to me in the husky, breathy voice I remembered so well.
`My husband's not at home, sir. Can I do anything?'
`Don't you remember me, Antonia? Have I changed so much?'
She frowned into the slanting sunlight that made her brown
hair look redder than it was. Suddenly her eyes widened,
her whole face seemed to grow broader. She caught her breath
and put out two hard-worked hands.
`Why, it's Jim! Anna, Yulka, it's Jim Burden!'
She had no sooner caught my hands than she looked alarmed.
`What's happened? Is anybody dead?'
My Antonia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: knickerbockers - the everlasting pair that didn't match his blouse
and that as he grew longer could only grow faded. He remembers the
particular holes in his three or four pair of coloured stockings.
Morgan was dear to his mother, but he never was better dressed than
was absolutely necessary - partly, no doubt, by his own fault, for
he was as indifferent to his appearance as a German philosopher.
"My dear fellow, you ARE coming to pieces," Pemberton would say to
him in sceptical remonstrance; to which the child would reply,
looking at him serenely up and down: "My dear fellow, so are you!
I don't want to cast you in the shade." Pemberton could have no
rejoinder for this - the assertion so closely represented the fact.
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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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: doubtless eagerly and bitterly canvassed. It was felt that a few
years ago the honours would have gone elsewhere. In this unwonted
business, in this reception of some hitherto undreamed-of and
outlandish potentate - some Prester John or old Assaracus - a few
years back it would have been the part of Moipu to play the hero
and the host, and his young men would have accompanied and adorned
the various celebrations as the acknowledged leaders of society.
And now, by a malign vicissitude of fortune, Moipu must sit in his
house quite unobserved; and his young men could but look in at the
door while their rivals feasted. Perhaps M. Grevy felt a touch of
bitterness towards his successor when he beheld him figure on the
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