| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: morning that came with wind and driving mist, that I found myself with
the Amawombe at the place known as Endondakusuka, a plain with some
kopjes in it that lies within six miles of the Natal border, from which
it is separated by the Tugela river.
As the orders of the Amawombe were to keep out of the fray if that were
possible, we had taken up a position about a mile to the right of what
proved to be the actual battlefield, choosing as our camping ground a
rising knoll that looked like a huge tumulus, and was fronted at a
distance of about five hundred yards by another smaller knoll. Behind
us stretched bushland, or rather broken land, where mimosa thorns grew
in scattered groups, sloping down to the banks of the Tugela about four
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: have preferred the Emperor to him.
'Listen! I cannot deceive you. I have to tell you. You ask
what it is? It is that I have loved before.'
She again laid her hand on his with an imploring gesture. He was
silent.
'You want to know who it was? It was--the Emperor.'
'We all love him. I can imagine you, a schoolgirl at the
Institute . . .'
'No, it was later. I was infatuated, but it passed . . . I must
tell you . . .'
'Well, what of it?'
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: her balance, she lost something much more precious. She lost her
temper."
"But not her voice," said I. "And the fools went together to
Scotland Yard, and there they found the way and the head and the
balance and the temper. But not the heart, Silvia."
"Plural," said Silvia, softly. I opened my near eye and turned
my head. The first thing I saw was a rosy arm, lying on the edge
of my pillow. Within reach.
"I say," I whispered. "Is the bell in this room all right?"
CHAPTER XI
THE LOVE SCENE
The Brother of Daphne |
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 Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: and accomplishments to the rough country swains, and, indeed,
inferior in learning only to the parson. His appearance,
therefore, is apt to occasion some little stir at the tea-table
of a farmhouse, and the addition of a supernumerary dish of cakes
or sweetmeats, or, peradventure, the parade of a silver teapot.
Our man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the smiles
of all the country damsels. How he would figure among them in the
churchyard, between services on Sundays; gathering grapes for
them from the wild vines that overran the surrounding trees;
reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs on the tombstones;
or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them, along the banks of the
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
