| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: and room by room and secret by secret, with droll, delightful,
childish talk about it and with the result, in half an hour,
of our becoming immense friends. Young as she was, I was struck,
throughout our little tour, with her confidence and courage
with the way, in empty chambers and dull corridors, on crooked
staircases that made me pause and even on the summit of an old
machicolated square tower that made me dizzy, her morning music,
her disposition to tell me so many more things than she asked,
rang out and led me on. I have not seen Bly since the day
I left it, and I daresay that to my older and more informed
eyes it would now appear sufficiently contracted. But as my
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: shield closely gripped by the leather straps, as he spurs
fiercely to meet him from the opposite direction. They come
together with such violence that the son of the Irish king having
broken and splintered his lance, wishes no more of the
tournament; for it was not moss he struck, but hard, dry boards.
In this encounter Lancelot taught him one of his thrusts, when he
pinned his shield to his arm, and his arm to his side, and
brought him down from his horse to earth. Like arrows the
knights at once fly out, spurring and pricking from either side,
some to relieve this knight, others to add to his distress.
While some thus try to aid their lords, many a saddle is left
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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 Common Sense by Thomas Paine: been governed by two counties only, and this danger it is always exposed to.
The unwarrantable stretch likewise, which that house made
in their last sitting, to gain an undue authority over the delegates
of that province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust power
out of their own hands. A set of instructions for the Delegates
were put together, which in point of sense and business would have
dishonoured a schoolboy, and after being approved by a FEW, a VERY FEW
without doors, were carried into the House, and there passed
IN BEHALF OF THE WHOLE COLONY; whereas, did the whole colony know,
with what ill-will that House hath entered on some necessary public measures,
they would not hesitate a moment to think them unworthy of such a trust.
Common Sense |
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 When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: mean?" he said slowly. "Where am I?"
He saw the red-haired man who had been first to
discover him. A voice seemed to be asking what he
had said, and was abruptly stilled.
The man in violet answered in a soft voice, speaking
English with a slightly foreign accent, or so at least
it seemed to the Sleeper's ears, "You are quite safe.
You were brought hither from where you fell asleep.
It is quite safe. You have been here some time--
sleeping. In a trance."
He said something further that Graham could not
When the Sleeper Wakes |
