| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: "Hold your tongue then, or I shall tell you nothing. Your laugh is too
loud, you will make people think that we have lunched too well. Last
Thursday, here on the Terrasse des Feuillants, I was walking along,
thinking of nothing at all, but when I got to the gate of the Rue de
Castiglione, by which I intended to leave, I came face to face with a
woman, or rather a young girl; who, if she did not throw herself at my
head, stopped short, less I think, from human respect, than from one
of those movements of profound surprise which affect the limbs, creep
down the length of the spine, and cease only in the sole of the feet,
to nail you to the ground. I have often produced effects of this
nature, a sort of animal magnetism which becomes enormously powerful
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: descent blade passed before Michael's eyes.
A despairing cry was heard. His aged mother fell sense-
less to the ground. Michael Strogoff was blind.
His orders executed, the Emir retired with his train.
There remained in the square only Ivan Ogareff and the
torch bearers. Did the wretch intend to insult his victim
yet further, and yet to give him a parting blow?
Ivan Ogareff slowly approached Michael, who, feeling
him coming, drew himself up. Ivan drew from his pocket
the Imperial letter, he opened it, and with supreme irony
he held it up before the sightless eyes of the Czar's courier,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: his disposition by impudently wagging his ears at me as I drew near.
I say he was somewhat solemnised just then; for, with the admirable
instinct of all men and animals under restraint, he had so wound and
wound the halter about the tree that he could go neither back nor
forwards, nor so much as put down his head to browse. There he
stood, poor rogue, part puzzled, part angry, part, I believe, amused.
He had not given up hope, and dully revolved the problem in his head,
giving ever and again another jerk at the few inches of free rope
that still remained unwound. A humorous sort of sympathy for the
creature took hold upon me. I went up, and, not without some trouble
on my part, and much distrust and resistance on the part of Neddy,
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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 The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln: "Was Mr. Turnbull a frequent visitor at your house?"
"Oh, yes."
"Was he engaged to your daughter Helen?"
"No." McIntyre's denial was prompt and firmly spoken. Penfield
and Kent, from his new seat nearer the platform, watched the
colonel narrowly, but learned nothing from his expression.
"I have heard otherwise," observed the coroner dryly.
"You have been misinformed," McIntyre's manner was short. "I
would suggest, Mr. Coroner, that you confine your questions and
conjectures to matters pertinent to this inquiry."
Penfield flushed as one of the jurors snickered, but he did not
The Red Seal |
