| 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: waggon at dawn and look out. But there was no river to be seen--only a
long line of billows of what looked like the finest cotton wool tossed
up lightly with a pitchfork. It was the fever mist. Out from among the
scrub, too, came little spirals of vapour, as though there were hundreds
of tiny fires alight in it--reek rising from thousands of tons of
rotting vegetation. It was a beautiful place, but the beauty was the
beauty of death; and all those lines and blots of vapour wrote one great
word across the surface of the country, and that word was 'fever.'
"It was a dreadful year of illness that. I came, I remember, to one
little kraal of Knobnoses, and went up to it to see if I could get some
'maas', or curdled butter-milk, and a few mealies. As I drew near I was
Long Odds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: He had fled, some say, for his life. Like Erasmus, he had no mind
to be a martyr, and he had been terrified at the execution of poor
Louis de Berquin, his friend, and the friend of Erasmus likewise.
This Louis de Berquin, a man well known in those days, was a gallant
young gentleman and scholar, holding a place in the court of Francis
I., who had translated into French the works of Erasmus, Luther, and
Melancthon, and had asserted that it was heretical to invoke the
Virgin Mary instead of the Holy Spirit, or to call her our Hope and
our Life, which titles--Berquin averred--belonged alone to God.
Twice had the doctors of the Sorbonne, with that terrible
persecutor, Noel Beda, at their head, seized poor Berquin, and tried
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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 Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: sleep.
But there was no sleep for me. My psychological state
was very extraordinary - different from anything I had previously
suffered. After a time I insisted upon talking - nervously and
elaborately explaining my condition. I told them I had become
fatigued, and had lain down in the sand for a nap. There had,
I said, been dreams even more frightful than usual - and when
I was awaked by the sudden high wind my overwrought nerves had
snapped. I had fled in panic, frequently falling over half-buried
stones and thus gaining my tattered and bedraggled aspect. I must
have slept long - hence the hours of my absence.
Shadow out of Time |
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 Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: nuisance in these democratic days. As George Harford I had
everything I wanted. Now I have merely everything that other
people want, which isn't nearly so pleasant. Well, my proposal is
this.
MRS. ARBUTHNOT. I told you I was not interested, and I beg you to
go.
LORD ILLINGWORTH. The boy is to be with you for six months in the
year, and with me for the other six. That is perfectly fair, is it
not? You can have whatever allowance you like, and live where you
choose. As for your past, no one knows anything about it except
myself and Gerald. There is the Puritan, of course, the Puritan in
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