| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my
ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises
on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked
across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of
the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded
across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old
clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise
everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began
to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were
they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And
where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was
 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
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 Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: liberty to relate the particulars.
At home, the death of an old famous senator will happen on the
15th at his country-house, worn with age and diseases.
But that which will make this month memorable to all posterity,
is the death of the French King, Lewis the fourteenth, after a
week's sickness at Marli, which will happen on the 29th, about
six o'clock in the evening. It seems to be an effect of the gout
in his stomach, followed by a flux. And in three days after
Monsieur Chamillard will follow his master, dying suddenly of an
appoplexy.
In this month likewise an ambassador will die in London; but I
|