| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: "It's bad for the digestion. Sit by the fire a little, as you
did before. Wait a moment. I'll give you a cigarette."
I settled her amid cushions, put out the candles, and struck the
red fire into flames.
"But where will you sit, Adam?"
"I shall lean elegantly against the chimney-piece and tell you a
fairy story."
"I'm all for the story, but I think you'd better be a child and
sit on the hearthrug, too. There's plenty of room."
"A child," said I, sitting down by her side. "My dear, do you
realize that I'm as old as the Cotswold Hills."
The Brother of Daphne |
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 End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: any decent young fellows left in the world. When he
looked around in the club he saw only a lot of conceited
popinjays too selfish to think of making a good woman
happy. Extreme indigence stared him in the face with
all that crowd to keep at home. He had cherished the
idea of building himself a little house in the country--
in Surrey--to end his days in, but he was afraid it was
out of the question, . . . and his staring eyes rolled
upwards with such a pathetic anxiety that Captain Whal-
ley charitably nodded down at him, restraining a sort of
sickening desire to laugh.
End of the Tether |
