| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: We thought of that one morning as we descended
the Glacier Point Trail in Yosemite.
The contrast we need not have made so sharp.
We might have taken the regular wagon-road by
way of Chinquapin, but we preferred to stick to the
trail, and so encountered our first sign of civilization
within an hundred yards of the brink. It, the
sign, was tourists. They were male and female, as
the Lord had made them, but they had improved on
that idea since. The women were freckled, hatted
with alpines, in which edelweiss--artificial, I think
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: duplicity, which won the day. Thus three years were lost in a vast
enterprise, three years of struggling and courage.
The Villele ministry fell just when Rodolphe was ruined. The valiant
lover thought he would seek in politics what commercial industry had
refused him; but before braving the storms of this career, he went,
all wounded and sick at heart, to have his bruises healed and his
courage revived at Naples, where the Prince and Princess had been
reinstated in their place and rights on the King's accession. This, in
the midst of his warfare, was a respite full of delights; he spent
three months at the Villa Gandolphini, rocked in hope.
Rodolphe then began again to construct his fortune. His talents were
Albert Savarus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: build bone on bone and taking the red earth, mould it into flesh
and stand before me as last I saw them newly dead. Oh! your
magic is good, Spell-weaver, and your hate is deep and your
vengeance is keen. No, I have nothing to tell you to-day, who
rule a greater people than the Zulus in another land. Who are
these little men who sit before you? One of them has a look of
Dingaan, my brother who slew me, yes, and wears his armlet. Is
he the king? Answer not, for I do not care to know. Surely
yonder withered thing is Sigananda. I know his eye and the Iziqu
on his breast. Yes, I gave it to him after the great battle with
Zweede in which he killed five men. Does he remember it, I
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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 Lady Susan by Jane Austen: nursery soon afterwards, and was half-way downstairs, when Frederica, as
pale as ashes, came running up, and rushed by me into her own room. I
instantly followed, and asked her what was the matter. "Oh!" said she, "he
is come--Sir James is come, and what shall I do?" This was no explanation;
I begged her to tell me what she meant. At that moment we were interrupted
by a knock at the door: it was Reginald, who came, by Lady Susan's
direction, to call Frederica down. "It is Mr. De Courcy! " said she,
colouring violently. "Mamma has sent for me; I must go." We all three went
down together; and I saw my brother examining the terrified face of
Frederica with surprize. In the breakfast-room we found Lady Susan, and a
young man of gentlemanlike appearance, whom she introduced by the name of
Lady Susan |
