| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Long Odds by H. Rider Haggard: lion as an express bullet. The lion is soft, and not a difficult animal
to finish if you hit him anywhere in the body. A buck takes far more
killing.
"Well, I started, and the first thing I set to work to do was to try to
discover whereabouts the brutes lay up for the day. About three hundred
yards from the waggon was the crest of a rise covered with single mimosa
trees, dotted about in a park-like fashion, and beyond this lay a
stretch of open plain running down to a dry pan, or water-hole, which
covered about an acre of ground, and was densely clothed with reeds, now
in the sere and yellow leaf. From the further edge of this pan the
ground sloped up again to a great cleft, or nullah, which had been cut
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: little rogue, at seven years old, has all the cunning of an old
Cardinal.
Oh! Louise, I am indeed a happy mother. My children are an endless
source of joy to me.
Senza brama sicura ricchezza.
Armand is a day scholar at Henry IV.'s school. I made up my mind he
should have a public-school training, yet could not reconcile myself
to the thought of parting with him; so I compromised, as the Duc
d'Orleans did before he became--or in order that he might become--
Louis Philippe. Every morning Lucas, the old servant whom you will
remember, takes Armand to school in time for the first lesson, and
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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 Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: possibly love anyone else. It would be horrible to me!"
"Yes," said the doctor. "But you are not living with Henriette.
You are wandering round, not knowing what to do with yourself
next."
There was no need for anybody to tell George that. "What do you
think?" he asked abruptly. "Is there any hope for me?"
"I think there is," said the other, who, in spite of his
resolution, had become a sort of ambassador for the unhappy
husband. He had to go to the Loches house to attend the child,
and so he could not help seeing Henriette, and talking to her
about the child's health and her own future. He considered that
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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: servant that Croizeau, by popular report of the neighborhood of the
Rue de Buffault, where he lived, was a man of exceeding stinginess,
possessed of forty thousand francs per annum. A week after the
instalment of the charming librarian he was delivered of a pun:
" 'You lend me books (livres), but I give you plenty of francs in
return,' said he.
"A few days later he put on a knowing little air, as much as to say,
'I know you are engaged, but my turn will come one day; I am a
widower.'
"He always came arrayed in fine linen, a cornflower blue coat, a
paduasoy waistcoat, black trousers, and black ribbon bows on the
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