| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: It was not until Gertrude and Rosie had gone and Sunnyside had
settled down for the night, with Winters at the foot of the
staircase, that Mr. Jamieson broached a subject he had evidently
planned before he came.
"Miss Innes," he said, stopping me as I was about to go to my
room up-stairs, "how are your nerves tonight?"
"I have none," I said happily. "With Halsey found, my troubles
have gone."
"I mean," he persisted, "do you feel as though you could go
through with something rather unusual?"
"The most unusual thing I can think of would be a peaceful
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe: I now began to cast up my accounts. I had by many letters
and much importunity, and with the intercession of my mother
too, had a second return of some goods from my brother (as I
now call him) in Virginia, to make up the damage of the cargo
I brought away with me, and this too was upon the condition
of my sealing a general release to him, and to send it him by
his correspondent at Bristol, which, though I thought hard of,
yet I was obliged to promise to do. However, I managed so
well in this case, that I got my goods away before the release
was signed, and then I always found something or other to say
to evade the thing, and to put off the signing it at all; till at
Moll Flanders |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: Mr. Brisher paused, and affected amusement at the memory.
"The old man was a scorcher," he said; "a regular scorcher."
"What!" said I; "did he--?"
"It was like this," explained Mr. Brisher, laying a friendly hand
on my arm and breathing into my face to calm me. "Just to dror
'im out, I told a story of a chap I said I knew--pretendin', you
know--who'd found a sovring in a novercoat 'e'd borrowed. I said
'e stuck to it, but I said I wasn't sure whether that was right
or not. And then the old man began. Lor'! 'e DID let me 'ave it!"
Mr. Brisher affected an insincere amusement. "'E was, well--what you
might call a rare 'and at Snacks. Said that was the sort of friend
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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 A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: was ready for us in its white drapery, and the head waiter
and his first assistant, in swallow-tails and white cravats,
brought in the soup and the hot plates at once.
Mr. X had ordered the dinner, and when the wine came on,
he picked up a bottle, glanced at the label, and then turned
to the grave, the melancholy, the sepulchral head waiter
and said it was not the sort of wine he had asked for.
The head waiter picked up the bottle, cast his undertaker-eye
on it and said:
"It is true; I beg pardon." Then he turned on his
subordinate and calmly said, "Bring another label."
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