| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: it is ours, and send un back. Oh dear, how hot I be!"
Without relinquishing her hold of Jude's hand she swerved
aside and flung herself down on the sod under a stunted thorn,
precipitately pulling Jude on to his knees at the same time.
"Oh, I ask pardon--I nearly threw you down, didn't I!
But I am so tired!"
She lay supine, and straight as an arrow, on the sloping
sod of this hill-top, gazing up into the blue miles of sky,
and still retaining her warm hold of Jude's hand. He reclined
on his elbow near her.
"We've run all this way for nothing," she went on, her form
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: feet to thank the company. Ernest saw him. There he was, over the
shoulders of the crowd, from the two glittering epaulets and
embroidered collar upward, beneath the arch of green boughs with
intertwined laurel, and the banner drooping as if to shade his
brow! And there, too, visible in the same glance, through the
vista of the forest, appeared the Great Stone Face! And was
there, indeed, such a resemblance as the crowd had testified?
Alas, Ernest could not recognize it! He beheld a war-worn and
weatherbeaten countenance, full of energy, and expressive of an
iron will; but the gentle wisdom, the deep, broad, tender
sympathies, were altogether wanting in Old Blood-and-Thunder's
The Snow Image |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: you don't use your brains?"
"You will tell us who has betrayed us," said the German. "But
that shall not save you--oh, no! You shall tell us all that you
know. Boris, here, knows pretty ways of making people speak!"
"Bah!" said Tommy scornfully, fighting down a singularly
unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach. "You will neither
torture me nor kill me."
"And why not?" asked Boris.
"Because you'd kill the goose that lays the golden eggs," replied
Tommy quietly.
There was a momentary pause. It seemed as though Tommy's
Secret Adversary |
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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Churchmen so hot? good uncle, hide such malice;
With such holiness can you do it?
SUFFOLK.
No malice, sir; no more than well becomes
So good a quarrel and so bad a peer.
GLOSTER.
As who, my lord?
SUFFOLK.
Why, as you, my lord,
An 't like your lordly lord-protectorship.
GLOSTER.
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