| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: or in Barcelona; having, while making the tour of Europe,
spent a couple of days at each of these places. On the whole,
with her poetic furbelows and her misshapen, intelligent little face,
she was, when you knew her, a decidedly interesting woman.
She was naturally shy, and if she had been born a beauty,
she would (having no vanity) probably have remained shy.
Now, she was both diffident and importunate; extremely reserved
sometimes with her friends, and strangely expansive with strangers.
She despised her husband; despised him too much, for she had been
perfectly at liberty not to marry him. She had been in love
with a clever man who had slighted her, and she had married
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: tunnel. That man will fight to the last breath."
And without waiting to see whether the others followed him or not
Cleggett set off at top speed for the Jasper B.
With a dagger between his teeth, his pistol in its holster, and
his electric, watchman's lantern in his pocket he entered the
tunnel and crawled forward on his hands and knees. If Loge were
in there indeed he had the fire at one end and Cleggett at the
other. But even at that, escape was possible, for all Cleggett
knew. What ramifications this peculiar passageway might have he
could not guess.
The place was narrow, and in spots so low that it was necessary
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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 Alcibiades I by Plato: ancients themselves, namely, the Axiochus, De justo, De virtute, Demodocus,
Sisyphus, Eryxias, which on grounds, both of internal and external
evidence, we are able with equal certainty to reject. But there still
remains a small portion of which we are unable to affirm either that they
are genuine or spurious. They may have been written in youth, or possibly
like the works of some painters, may be partly or wholly the compositions
of pupils; or they may have been the writings of some contemporary
transferred by accident to the more celebrated name of Plato, or of some
Platonist in the next generation who aspired to imitate his master. Not
that on grounds either of language or philosophy we should lightly reject
them. Some difference of style, or inferiority of execution, or
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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 Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: that spoken by my respected grandmother, Hilda
of Middleham, who died in odour of sanctity, little
short, if we may presume to say so, of her glorious
namesake, the blessed Saint Hilda of Whitby, God
be gracious to her soul!''
When the Prior had ceased what he meant as a
conciliatory harangue, his companion said briefly
and emphatically, ``I speak ever French, the language
of King Richard and his nobles; but I understand
English sufficiently to communicate with
the natives of the country.''
Ivanhoe |
