| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: cartoons.' His holidays were spent in sketching; his evenings,
when they were free, at the theatre. Here at the opera he
discovered besides a taste for a new art, the art of music; and it
was, he wrote, 'as if he had found out a heaven on earth.' 'I am
so anxious that whatever he professes to know, he should really
perfectly possess,' his mother wrote, 'that I spare no pains';
neither to him nor to myself, she might have added. And so when he
begged to be allowed to learn the piano, she started him with
characteristic barbarity on the scales; and heard in consequence
'heart-rending groans' and saw 'anguished claspings of hands' as he
lost his way among their arid intricacies.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: Carnaby, that remarkable vestige of his own brilliant youth. I
had heard of him, but never seen him. For a man of sixty-five
who had sinned all the sins, so they said, and laid waste the
most magnificent political debut of any man of his generation, he
seemed to me to be looking remarkably fit and fresh. He was a
lean little man with grey-blue eyes in his brown face, and his
cracked voice was the worst thing in his effect.
"Hope you don't mind us coming this way, Ponderevo," he cried;
and my uncle, who was sometimes a little too general and generous
with titles, answered, "Not at all, my lord, not at all! Glad
you make use of it!"
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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 The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: of men attended to the removal of the wounded. The carts and horses of
the neighborhood were put into requisition, and the suffering men were
carefully laid on the clothing of the dead. Before the little column
started, the National Guard of Fougeres turned over to Hulot a Chouan,
dangerously wounded, whom they had captured at the foot of the slope
up which his comrades had escaped, and where he had fallen from
weakness.
"Thanks for your help, citizens," said the commandant. "God's thunder!
if it hadn't been for you, we should have had a pretty bad quarter of
an hour. Take care of yourselves; the war has begun. Adieu, friends."
Then, turning to the prisoner, he asked, "What's the name of your
The Chouans |
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 Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: me, you know what that means, and that all I wish is to see
you happy. Do you think I cannot enjoy your pleasures?
Esther, I do. If I am uneasy, if I am alarmed, if - . Oh,
believe me, try and believe in me,' he cried, giving up
argument with perhaps a happy inspiration.
But the girl's suspicions were aroused; and though she
pressed the matter no farther (indeed, her father was already
seen returning), it by no means left her thoughts. At one
moment she simply resented the selfishness of a man who had
obtruded his dark looks and passionate language on her joy;
for there is nothing that a woman can less easily forgive
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