| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: things.
"A bad book?" her interlocutor repeated.
"I didn't like it. He went to church because your daughter went,"
she continued to General Fancourt. "I think it my duty to call
your attention to his extraordinary demonstrations to your
daughter."
"Well, if you don't mind them I don't," the General laughed.
"Il s'attache e ses pas. But I don't wonder - she's so charming."
"I hope she won't make him burn any books!" Paul Overt ventured to
exclaim.
"If she'd make him write a few it would be more to the purpose,"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: thereunto or overpass it.'
So spake she; and the steadfast goodly Odysseus rejoiced
and was glad, for that he saw a true friend in the lists.
Then with a lighter heart he spake amid the Phaeacians:
'Now reach ye this throw, young men, if ye may; and soon,
methinks, will I cast another after it, as far or yet
further. And whomsoever of the rest his heart and spirit
stir thereto, hither let him come and try the issue with
me, in boxing or in wrestling or even in the foot race, I
care not which, for ye have greatly angered me: let any of
all the Phaeacians come save Laodamas alone, for he is mine
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: but generally at the least convenient times, and in the way least
beneficial to herself, and least satisfactory to me: the short
half-hour of practising was horribly strummed through; she,
meantime, unsparingly abusing me, either for interrupting her with
corrections, or for not rectifying her mistakes before they were
made, or something equally unreasonable. Once or twice, I ventured
to remonstrate with her seriously for such irrational conduct; but
on each of those occasions, I received such reprehensive
expostulations from her mother, as convinced me that, if I wished
to keep the situation, I must even let Miss Matilda go on in her
own way.
Agnes Grey |
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 Jolly Corner by Henry James: divination, if he ever so prowled. There were divinations he was
unprepared for, and he had at all events averted enquiry by the
time Mrs. Muldoon had left them, passing on to other parts.
There was happily enough to say, on so consecrated a spot, that
could be said freely and fairly; so that a whole train of
declarations was precipitated by his friend's having herself broken
out, after a yearning look round: "But I hope you don't mean they
want you to pull THIS to pieces!" His answer came, promptly, with
his re-awakened wrath: it was of course exactly what they wanted,
and what they were "at" him for, daily, with the iteration of
people who couldn't for their life understand a man's liability to
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