| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: one that had strayed alone into his waistcoat pocket, and
unless he once more successfully achieved the adventure of
the house of crime, his portmanteau lay in the cloakroom in
eternal pawn, for lack of a penny fee. And then he
remembered the porter, who stood suggestively attentive,
words of gratitude hanging on his lips.
John hunted right and left; he found a coin - prayed God that
it was a sovereign - drew it out, beheld a halfpenny, and
offered it to the porter.
The man's jaw dropped.
'It's only a halfpenny!' he said, startled out of railway
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: village, where he was left under guard of two stalwart warriors.
For an hour or more the prisoner was left to his own devices,
which consisted in vain and unremitting attempts to loosen
the strands which fettered his wrists, and then he was inter-
rupted by the appearance of the black sergeant Usanga, who
entered his hut and approached him.
"What are they going to do with me?" asked the English-
man. "My country is not at war with these people. You
speak their language. Tell them that I am not an enemy, that
my people are the friends of the black people and that they
must let me go in peace."
Tarzan the Untamed |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: mill-ladder. Behind this were a kitchen and a bedroom, with a view
over the Seine. A tiny garden, reclaimed from the waters, displayed at
the foot of this modest dwelling its beds of cabbages and onions, and
a few rose-bushes, sheltered by palings, forming a sort of hedge. A
little structure of lath and mud served as a kennel for a big dog, the
indispensable guardian of so lonely a dwelling. Beyond this kennel was
a little plot, where the hens cackled whose eggs were sold to the
Canons. Here and there on this patch of earth, muddy or dry according
to the whimsical Parisian weather, a few trees grew, constantly lashed
by the wind, and teased and broken by the passer-by--willows, reeds,
and tall grasses.
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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 Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: "Some flakes were falling as I came here."
"All right. Come with me and show me the way." Muller nodded
carelessly to his superior officer, his mind evidently already
engrossed in thoughts of the interesting case, and hurried out
with Amster. The commissioner was quite satisfied with the state
of affairs. He knew the case was in safe hands. He seated
himself at his desk again and began to read the little book which
had come into his hands so strangely. His eyes ran more and more
rapidly over the closely written pages, as his interest grew and
grew.
When, half an hour later, he had finished the reading, he paced
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