| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of
fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully
and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in
the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for
the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away
these bleak autumnal evenings."
ADVENTURE XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET
"Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking
down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather
sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone."
My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: Chapter 3.IX.
They knocked at the door, and Cyril followed his aunts into grandfather's
hot, sweetish room.
"Come on," said Grandfather Pinner. "Don't hang about. What is it?
What've you been up to?"
He was sitting in front of a roaring fire, clasping his stick. He had a
thick rug over his knees. On his lap there lay a beautiful pale yellow
silk handkerchief.
"It's Cyril, father," said Josephine shyly. And she took Cyril's hand and
led him forward.
"Good afternoon, grandfather," said Cyril, trying to take his hand out of
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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 The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: drill, hammer and anvil, echoing about the canyon; the
assayer hard at it in our dining-room; the carts below on the
road, and their cargo of red mineral bounding and thundering
down the iron chute. And now all gone - all fallen away into
this sunny silence and desertion: a family of squatters
dining in the assayer's office, making their beds in the big
sleeping room erstwhile so crowded, keeping their wine in the
tunnel that once rang with picks.
But Silverado itself, although now fallen in its turn into
decay, was once but a mushroom, and had succeeded to other
mines and other flitting cities. Twenty years ago, away down
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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 Blix by Frank Norris: be softer than down, smoother than satin, warm and sweet and
redolent as new apples. Condy imagined himself having the right
to lean toward her there and kiss that little spot upon her neck
or her cheek; and as he fancied it, was surprised to find his
breath come suddenly quick, and a barely perceptible qualm, as of
a certain faintness, thrill him to his finger-tips; and then, he
thought, how would it be if he could, without fear of rebuff,
reach out his arm and put it about her trim, firm waist, and draw
her very close to him, till he should feel the satiny coolness of
her smooth cheek against his; till he could sink his face in the
delicious, fragrant confusion of her hair, then turn that face to
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