| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: simply rehearse, as I heard it, a story of supernatural terror.
About the end of the American war, when the officers of Lord
Cornwallis's army, which surrendered at Yorktown, and others, who
had been made prisoners during the impolitic and ill-fated
controversy, were returning to their own country, to relate their
adventures, and repose themselves after their fatigues, there was
amongst them a general officer, to whom Miss S. gave the name of
Browne, but merely, as I understood, to save the inconvenience of
introducing a nameless agent in the narrative. He was an officer
of merit, as well as a gentleman of high consideration for family
and attainments.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: soir-la, notre horizon intellectual s'est elargie, et nous y avons
pousse des reconnaissances profondes et lointaines. Apres avoir
vivement cause a table, nous avons longuement cause au salon; et
nous nous separions le soir a Trafalgar Square, apres avoir longe
les trotters, stationne aux coins des rues et deux fois rebrousse
chemie en nous reconduisant l'un l'autre. Il etait pres d'une
heure du matin! Mais quelle belle passe d'argumentation, quels
beaux echanges de sentiments, quelles fortes confidences
patriotiques nous avions fournies! J'ai compris ce soir la que
Jenkin ne detestait pas la France, et je lui serrai fort les mains
en l'embrassant. Nous nous quittions aussi amis qu'on puisse
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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 Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: although I had never before set eyes upon him.
"The Professor was out East the last time I was there, sir,"
stated the commissionaire. "I often used to see him. But he's
an eccentric old gentleman. Seems to live in a world of his own.
He's recently back from China, I think."
Nayland Smith stood clicking his teeth together in irritable hesitation.
I heard Karamaneh sigh, and, looking at her, I saw that her cheeks were
regaining their natural color.
She smiled in pathetic apology.
"If he was here he is gone," she said. "I am not afraid now."
Smith thanked the commissionaire for his information and we
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
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 Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: majestic, figure had imparted to me the scarlet symbol and the
little roll of explanatory manuscript. With his own ghostly
voice he had exhorted me, on the sacred consideration of my
filial duty and reverence towards him -- who might reasonably
regard himself as my official ancestor -- to bring his mouldy and
moth-eaten lucubrations before the public. "Do this," said the
ghost of Mr. Surveyor Pue, emphatically nodding the head that
looked so imposing within its memorable wig; "do this, and the
profit shall be all
The Scarlet Letter |
