| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: small, and lastly, we are of an age, and if she is beautiful, I
am wise and have gifts great as her own."
Once more I interpreted for the benefit of Anscombe, for Heda
understood Zulu well enough, although she had pretended not to do
so, after which the two shook hands, to Anscombe's amusement and
my wonder. For I felt this scene to be strained and one that
hid, or presaged, something I did not comprehend.
"This is the Chief she loves?" said Nombe to me, studying
Anscombe with her steady eyes after Heda had gone. "Well, he is
no common man and brave, if idle; one, too, who may grow tall in
the world, should he live, when he has learned to think. But,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: pleasant spot. If he could have had his brothers with him, and
his friend Thasus, and could have seen his dear mother under a
roof of his own, he might here have been happy after all their
disappointments. Some day or other, too, his sister Europa
might have come quietly to the door of his home, and smiled
round upon the familiar faces. But, indeed, since there was no
hope of regaining the friends of his boyhood, or ever seeing
his dear sister again, Cadmus resolved to make himself happy
with these new companions, who had grown so fond of him while
following the cow.
"Yes, my friends," said he to them, "this is to be our home.
Tanglewood Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: were largest, and their canopy of overhanging foliage
was lifted highest from the ground. Inside this half-ring
of tents were many rounded rows of benches, which followed
in narrowing lines the idea of an amphitheatre cut in two.
In the centre, just under the edge of the roof of boughs,
rose a wooden pagoda, in form not unlike an open-air stand
for musicians. In front of this, and leading from it
on the level of its floor, there projected a platform,
railed round with aggressively rustic woodwork.
The nearest benches came close about this platform.
At the hour when Theron started away, there were few enough
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: not ring hollow; it absorbed everything and gave nothing out. Bixiou
(a clerk of whom more anon) caricatured the cashier by drawing a head
in a wig at the top of an egg, and two little legs at the other end,
with this inscription: "Born to pay out and take in without
blundering. A little less luck, and he might have been lackey to the
bank of France; a little more ambition, and he could have been
honorably discharged."
At the moment of which we are now writing, the minister was looking at
his cashier very much as we gaze at a window or a cornice, without
supposing that either can hear us, or fathom our secret thoughts.
"I am all the more anxious that we should settle everything with the
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