| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: He looked at her frowning.
"Why this, Aline?" he asked her with some sternness. "I can
understand that, having changed since then, you should now wish
to disown those sentiments. It is a woman's way, I suppose."
"Oh, what are you saying, Andre? How wrong you are! It is the
truth I have told you!"
"And was it concern for me," he asked her, "that laid you swooning
when you saw him return wounded from the meeting? That was what
opened my eyes."
"Wounded? I had not seen his wound. I saw him sitting alive and
apparently unhurt in his caleche, and I concluded that he had
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: it short and it sticks up like that on a cat's back. Iya!" (i.e.
Piff!), and she moved her hand contemptuously, "a feather of a man. But
white--white, one of those who rule. Why, they all of them know that he
is their master. They call him 'He-who-never-Sleeps.' They say that he
has the courage of a lioness with young--he who got away when Dingaan
killed Piti [Retief] and the Boers; they say that he is quick and
cunning as a snake, and that Panda and his great indunas think more of
him than of any white man they know. He is unmarried also, though they
say, too, that twice he had a wife, who died, and now he does not turn
to look at women, which is strange in any man, and shows that he will
escape trouble and succeed. Still, it must be remembered that they are
Child of Storm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: submitted.
"Amusing?"
"For a strong man - yes."
"They've given me subjects without number, if that's what you mean;
but they've taken away at the same time the power to use them.
I've touched a thousand things, but which one of them have I turned
into gold? The artist has to do only with that - he knows nothing
of any baser metal. I've led the life of the world, with my wife
and my progeny; the clumsy conventional expensive materialised
vulgarised brutalised life of London. We've got everything
handsome, even a carriage - we're perfect Philistines and
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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 Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: lightly. But I begin to grue at the sound of it."
"My name is called Balfour," said I, "David Balfour of Shaws. As for
him that sent me, I will let his token speak." And I showed the silver
button.
"Put it in your pocket, sir!" cries he. "Ye need name no names. The
deevil's buckie, I ken the button of him! And de'il hae't! Where is
he now!"
I told him I knew not where Alan was, but he had some sure place (or
thought he had) about the north side, where he was to lie until a ship
was found for him; and how and where he had appointed to be spoken
with.
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