| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: I knew his father, lost in the Lively off Greenland in `20, or
Andrew Woodhouse, drowned in the same seas in 1777, or John Paxton,
drowned off Cape Farewell a year later, or old John Rawlings,
whose grandfather sailed with me, drowned in the Gulf of Finland
in `50. Do ye think that all these men will have to make a rush
to Whitby when the trumpet sounds? I have me antherums aboot it!
I tell ye that when they got here they'd be jommlin' and jostlin'
one another that way that it `ud be like a fight up on the ice
in the old days, when we'd be at one another from daylight
to dark, an' tryin' to tie up our cuts by the aurora borealis."
This was evidently local pleasantry, for the old man cackled over it,
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: "I want him to know. An' if I can get to him I'll--"
"You can't get near Tull," interrupted Judkins. "Thet vigilante
bunch hev taken to bein' bodyguard for Tull an' Dyer, too."
"Hasn't Lassiter made a break yet?" inquired Venters, curiously.
"Naw!" replied Judkins, scornfully. "Jane turned his head. He's
mad in love over her--follers her like a dog. He ain't no more
Lassiter! He's lost his nerve, he doesn't look like the same
feller. It's village talk. Everybody knows it. He hasn't thrown a
gun, an' he won't!"
"Jud, I'll bet he does," replied Venters, earnestly. "Remember
what I say. This Lassiter is something more than a gun-man. Jud,
Riders of the Purple Sage |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: music, but not in words; no, never in words. She sighed, teased by
desires so incoherent, so incommunicable.
"But isn't it curious," William resumed, "that you should neither feel
it for me, nor I for you?"
Katharine agreed that it was curious--very; but even more curious to
her was the fact that she was discussing the question with William. It
revealed possibilities which opened a prospect of a new relationship
altogether. Somehow it seemed to her that he was helping her to
understand what she had never understood; and in her gratitude she was
conscious of a most sisterly desire to help him, too--sisterly, save
for one pang, not quite to be subdued, that for him she was without
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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 The Aspern Papers by Henry James: afterward by the care of her good friends (fortunately, thanks
to me, she said, smiling, there was money in the house;
and she repeated that when once the Italians like you they
are your friends for life); and when we had gone into this
she asked me about my giro, my impressions, the places
I had seen. I told her what I could, making it up partly,
I am afraid, as in my depression I had not seen much;
and after she had heard me she exclaimed, quite as if she
had forgotten her aunt and her sorrow, "Dear, dear, how much
I should like to do such things--to take a little journey!"
It came over me for the moment that I ought to propose some tour,
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