| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: shut, informed me, 'Coming directly, sir,' and vanished.
For a long time I heard nothing but the whir and roar
of the fire. There were also whistling sounds. The boats
jumped, tugged at the painters, ran at each other play-
fully, knocked their sides together, or, do what we would,
swung in a bunch against the ship's side. I couldn't
stand it any longer, and swarming up a rope, clambered
aboard over the stern.
"It was as bright as day. Coming up like this, the
sheet of fire facing me, was a terrifying sight, and the
heat seemed hardly bearable at first. On a settee cushion
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from What is Man? by Mark Twain: quiet them.
XIII
Isn't it odd, when you think of it, that you may list all
the celebrated Englishmen, Irishmen, and Scotchmen of modern
times, clear back to the first Tudors--a list containing five
hundred names, shall we say?--and you can go to the histories,
biographies, and cyclopedias and learn the particulars of the
lives of every one of them. Every one of them except one--the
most famous, the most renowned--by far the most illustrious of
them all--Shakespeare! You can get the details of the lives of
all the celebrated ecclesiastics in the list; all the celebrated
What is Man? |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: she must have had a succession of sorrows. People weren't poor,
after all, whom so many losses could overtake; they were positively
rich when they had had so much to give up. But the air of this
devoted and indifferent woman, who always made, in any attitude, a
beautiful accidental line, conveyed somehow to Stransom that she
had known more kinds of trouble than one.
He had a great love of music and little time for the joy of it; but
occasionally, when workaday noises were muffled by Saturday
afternoons, it used to come back to him that there were glories.
There were moreover friends who reminded him of this and side by
side with whom he found himself sitting out concerts. On one of
|
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 Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: I want to go to the Children's Hospital. But before I go, Miss
Innes, I wish you would be more frank with me than you have been
yet. I want you to show me the revolver you picked up in the
tulip bed."
So he had known all along!
"It WAS a revolver, Mr. Jamieson," I admitted, cornered at
last, "but I can not show it to you. It is not in my
possession."
CHAPTER XXII
A LADDER OUT OF PLACE
At dinner Mr. Jamieson suggested sending a man out in his place
The Circular Staircase |
