| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: hopping on the threshold and the dead man within staring at
the roof - and now, with a sudden change, thronged about with
white-faced, hand-uplifting neighbours, and doctor bursting
through their midst and fixing his stethoscope as he went,
the policeman shaking a sagacious head beside the body. It
was to this he feared that he was driving; in the midst of
this he saw himself arrive, heard himself stammer faint
explanations, and felt the hand of the constable upon his
shoulder. Heavens! how he wished he had played the manlier
part; how he despised himself that he had fled that fatal
neighbourhood when all was quiet, and should now be tamely
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: unquestionably doomed to die before the next market day.
Noting her dissembled distress Jude kissed her, and said it was time
to go and see if the lodgings were ready. He would go on with the boy,
and fetch her soon.
When she was left alone she waited patiently, but Jude did not come back.
At last she started, the coast being clear, and on passing the poulterer's
shop, not far off, she saw her pigeons in a hamper by the door.
An emotion at sight of them, assisted by the growing dusk of evening,
caused her to act on impulse, and first looking around her quickly,
she pulled out the peg which fastened down the cover, and went on.
The cover was lifted from within, and the pigeons flew away with a
Jude the Obscure |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: Ay! amid lotus-meadows dost thou stand,
Like Proserpine, with poppy-laden head,
Guarding the holy ashes of the dead.
For though thy brood of warrior sons hath ceased,
Thy noble dead are with thee! - they at least
Are faithful to thine honour:- guard them well,
O childless city! for a mighty spell,
To wake men's hearts to dreams of things sublime,
Are the lone tombs where rest the Great of Time.
III.
Yon lonely pillar, rising on the plain,
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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 Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: ends the game. It is a vigorous hopping game for little girls.
The girls were pretty well exhausted when this game was over and
we asked them to play something which required less exercise.
"Water the flowers," said the small leader.
Several of them squatted down in a circle, put their hands
together in the centre to represent the flowers. One of their
number gathered up the front of her garment in such a way as to
make a bag, and went around as if sprinkling water on their
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