| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: studio. Obscure lodging houses are precisely the places most
looked after by the police, and even the best hotels are bound to
keep a register of arrivals. I was very anxious that nothing
should stop his projected mission of courier to headquarters. As
we passed various street corners where the mistral blast struck at
us fiercely I could feel him shivering by my side. However,
Therese would have lighted the iron stove in the studio before
retiring for the night, and, anyway, I would have to turn her out
to make up a bed on the couch. Service of the King! I must say
that she was amiable and didn't seem to mind anything one asked her
to do. Thus while the fellow slumbered on the divan I would sit
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: pride did not miscalculate! What flavours and forces, what
seasons and climes do we not find mingled in it! It impresses us
at one time as ancient, at another time as foreign, bitter, and
too modern, it is as arbitrary as it is pompously traditional, it
is not infrequently roguish, still oftener rough and coarse--it
has fire and courage, and at the same time the loose, dun-
coloured skin of fruits which ripen too late. It flows broad and
full: and suddenly there is a moment of inexplicable hesitation,
like a gap that opens between cause and effect, an oppression
that makes us dream, almost a nightmare; but already it broadens
and widens anew, the old stream of delight-the most manifold
Beyond Good and Evil |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: cut and material. The body had been prepared for burial in a
beseeming suit of black. Muller made a careful examination of the
clothes, and found only what the police reports showed him had
already been found by the examination made by the local authorities.
Upon a second careful examination, however, he found that in one of
the vest pockets there was a little extra pocket, like a change
pocket, and in it he found a crumpled piece of paper. He took it
out, smoothed and read it. It was a post office receipt for a
registered letter. The date was still clear, but the name of the
person to whom the letter had been addressed was illegible. The
creases of the paper and a certain dampness, as if it had been
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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 Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: In a few minutes a servant came to show me to my apartment, which
was very superb, with a comfortable dressing-room and fire for Mr.
Bancroft, where the faithful Keats unpacked his dressing materials,
while I was in a few moments seated at the toilet to undergo my
hair-dressing, surrounded by all my apparatus, and a blazing fire to
welcome me with a hissing tea-kettle of hot water and every comfort.
How well the English understand it, I learn more and more every day.
My maid had a large room above me, also with a fire; indeed, a
"lady's" maid is a VERY GREAT character INDEED, and would be much
more unwilling to take her tea with, or speak familiarly to, a
footman or a housemaid than I should. My greatest mistakes in
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