| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: up the avenue alone to the door of his house. The night had come
again; there was a light within, but never a sound; and Keawe crept
about the corner, opened the back door softly, and looked in.
There was Kokua on the floor, the lamp at her side; before her was
a milk-white bottle, with a round belly and a long neck; and as she
viewed it, Kokua wrung her hands.
A long time Keawe stood and looked in the doorway. At first he was
struck stupid; and then fear fell upon him that the bargain had
been made amiss, and the bottle had come back to him as it came at
San Francisco; and at that his knees were loosened, and the fumes
of the wine departed from his head like mists off a river in the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage
visitors."
"A client, then?"
"If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out
on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more
likely to be some crony of the landlady's."
Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there
came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He
stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and
towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit.
"Come in!" said he.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: been two causes of my unhappy married life. There is certainly no
woman in Paris whose lot seems more enviable than mine, and yet,
in reality, there is not one so much to be pitied. You will think
I must be out of my senses to talk to you like this; but you know
my father, and I cannot regard you as a stranger."
"You will find no one," said Eugene, "who longs as eagerly as I
do to be yours. What do all women seek? Happiness." (He answered
his own question in low, vibrating tones.) "And if happiness for
a woman means that she is to be loved and adored, to have a
friend to whom she can pour out her wishes, her fancies, her
sorrows and joys; to whom she can lay bare her heart and soul,
Father Goriot |
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 Othello by William Shakespeare: the issue?
Iago. Thou art sure of me: Go make Money: I haue
told thee often, and I re-tell thee againe, and againe, I
hate the Moore. My cause is hearted; thine hath no lesse
reason. Let vs be coniunctiue in our reuenge, against
him. If thou canst Cuckold him, thou dost thy selfe a
pleasure, me a sport. There are many Euents in the
Wombe of Time, which wilbe deliuered. Trauerse, go,
prouide thy Money. We will haue more of this to morrow.
Adieu
Rod. Where shall we meete i'th' morning?
Othello |
