| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: the women said no more, but looked at their guest in reverent
admiration. He turned to the nun with the wafers.
"Sister Marthe," he said, "the messenger will say Fiat Voluntas in
answer to the word Hosanna."
"There is some one on the stairs!" cried the other nun, opening a
hiding-place contrived in the roof.
This time it was easy to hear, amid the deepest silence, a sound
echoing up the staircase; it was a man's tread on the steps covered
with dried lumps of mud. With some difficulty the priest slipped into
a kind of cupboard, and the nun flung some clothes over him.
"You can shut the door, Sister Agathe," he said in a muffled voice.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: less yellow paper on the wall. 'Amy!' I called
aloud, and my voice seemed to lose itself in the
emptiness of this tiny house as if I had cried in a
desert. He opened his eyes. 'Gone!' he said dis-
tinctly. 'I had only asked for water--only for a
little water. . . .'
"He was muddy. I covered him up and stood
waiting in silence, catching a painfully gasped
word now and then. They were no longer in his
own language. The fever had left him, taking
with it the heat of life. And with his panting
Amy Foster |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: shall naught avail us; but an I be to hang, it shall not be for
lack of swearing."
And then, while Dick gave himself over to his reflections, the old
rogue curled himself down into a corner, pulled his monkish hood
about his face, and composed himself to sleep. Soon he was loudly
snoring, so utterly had his long life of hardship and adventure
blunted the sense of apprehension.
It was long after noon, and the day was already failing, before the
door was opened and Dick taken forth and led up-stairs to where, in
a warm cabinet, Earl Risingham sat musing over the fire.
On his captive's entrance he looked up.
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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 Timaeus by Plato: soul interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of heaven,
herself turning in herself, began a divine life of rational and everlasting
motion. The body of heaven is visible, but the soul is invisible, and
partakes of reason and harmony, and is the best of creations, being the
work of the best. And being composed of the same, the other, and the
essence, these three, and also divided and bound in harmonical proportion,
and revolving within herself--the soul when touching anything which has
essence, whether divided or undivided, is stirred to utter the sameness or
diversity of that and some other thing, and to tell how and when and where
individuals are affected or related, whether in the world of change or of
essence. When reason is in the neighbourhood of sense, and the circle of
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