| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: what I was coming for daily; troubled, ashamed, eager; finding in
my nearness to her a unique sensation which I indulged with dread,
self-contempt, and deep pleasure, as if it were a secret vice bound
to end in my undoing, like the habit of some drug or other which
ruins and degrades its slave.
I looked her over, from the top of her dishevelled head, down the
lovely line of the shoulder, following the curve of the hip, the
draped form of the long limb, right down to her fine ankle below a
torn, soiled flounce; and as far as the point of the shabby, high-
heeled, blue slipper, dangling from her well-shaped foot, which she
moved slightly, with quick, nervous jerks, as if impatient of my
'Twixt Land & Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: and found distractions for his mind in play. Unfortunately, he won
much money, and continued playing. Little by little, he returned to
the dissipated life he had formerly lived. Soon he ceased even to dine
in his own home.
Some months went by in the enjoyment of this new independence; he was
determined to preserve it, and in order to do so he separated himself
from his wife, giving her the large apartments and lodging himself in
the entresol. By the end of the year Diard and Juana only saw each
other in the morning at breakfast.
Like all gamblers, he had his alternations of loss and gain. Not
wishing to cut into the capital of his fortune, he felt the necessity
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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 Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: contemplated the sea, saying to himself: "There is my bride; the only
love for me!" Then he sang too other lines of the canzonet,--
"She is fair
Beyond compare,"--
repeating it to express the imploring poesy which abounds in the heart
of a timid young man, brave only when alone. Dreams were in that
undulating song, sung, resung, interrupted, renewed, and hushed at
last in a final modulation, the tones of which died away like the
lingering vibrations of a bell.
At this moment a voice, which he fancied was that of a siren rising
from the sea, a woman's voice, repeated the air he had sung, but with
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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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: that of a hypnotiser.
Muller knew now what he wanted to know. This young man understood
how to bend the will of others, even the will of a sick mind, to
his own desires. The little silent scene he had watched had lasted
just the length of time it had taken the detective to walk through
the room and hold out his hand to the patient.
"I don't want to disturb you, Mr. Varna," he said in a friendly
tone, with a motion towards the bench from which the mechanician
had just arisen. Varna sat down again, obedient as a child. He
was not always so apparently, for Muller saw a red mark over the
fingers of one hand that was evidently the mark of a blow. Gyuri
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