| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: He did not kiss her that night when she and Belle went together up the
stairs. But he stared after her gloomily, with hurt and bewilderment in
his eyes.
He did not understand. He never would. She had come home to him all
gentleness and tenderness, ready to find in him the things she needed so
badly. But out of his obstinacy and hurt he had himself built up a
barrier.
That night Sara Lee dreamed that she was back in the little house of
mercy. Rene was there; and Henri; and Jean, with the patch over his eye.
They were waiting for the men to come, and the narrow hall was full of
the odor of Marie's soup. Then she heard them coming, the shuffling of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: condemned to remain in the window, or to be packed off to the
colonies, Granville was certain to see it on his wife's head; if a
material of bad color or hideous design were to be found, she would
select it. These hapless bigots are heart-breaking in their notions of
dress. Want of taste is a defect inseparable from false pietism.
And so, in the home-life that needs the fullest sympathy, Granville
had no true companionship. He went out alone to parties and the
theatres. Nothing in his house appealed to him. A huge Crucifix that
hung between his bed and Angelique's seemed figurative of his destiny.
Does it not represent a murdered Divinity, a Man-God, done to death in
all the prime of life and beauty? The ivory of that cross was less
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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 Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: The men's eyes looked toward them, then the detective and Amster
walked toward a high picket fence which closed the garden on the
side nearest its neighbours. They shook the various pickets without
much caution, for the wind made noise enough to kill any other sound.
Amster called to Muller, he had found a loose picket, and his strong
young arms had torn it out easily. Muller motioned to the other
three to join them. A moment later they were all in the garden,
walking carefully toward the house.
The door was closed but there were no bars at the windows of the
ground floor. Amster looked inquiringly at the commissioner and
the latter nodded and said, "All right, go ahead."
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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 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: of an intolerable burden, and fill my heart with joy, as if some
friend had roused me from a dreadful nightmare.
It was now near eight o'clock in the morning, for my candle had
expired in the midst of my perusal, leaving me no alternative but
to get another, at the expense of alarming the house, or to go to
bed, and wait the return of daylight. On my mother's account, I
chose the latter; but how willingly I sought my pillow, and how
much sleep it brought me, I leave you to imagine.
At the first appearance of dawn, I rose, and brought the manuscript
to the window, but it was impossible to read it yet. I devoted
half an hour to dressing, and then returned to it again. Now, with
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
