| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: Neither did they go about the fields screaming dis-
mal tunes. Many times have I heard his high-
pitched voice from behind the ridge of some slop-
ing sheep-walk, a voice light and soaring, like a
lark's, but with a melancholy human note, over our
fields that hear only the song of birds. And I
should be startled myself. Ah! He was different:
innocent of heart, and full of good will, which no-
body wanted, this castaway, that, like a man trans-
planted into another planet, was separated by an
immense space from his past and by an immense
 Amy Foster |
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 Enemies of Books by William Blades: They knew they had no remedy, and so dumbfounded were they
by their own ignorance, that they humbly requested M. Vanderberg
to relieve their minds by returning some portion of his large gains.
He gave them 1,200 francs.
The great Shakespearian and other discoveries, which were
found in a garret at Lamport Hall in 1867 by Mr. Edmonds,
are too well-known and too recent to need description.
In this case mere chance seems to have led to the preservation
of works, the very existence of which set the ears of all lovers
of Shakespeare a-tingling.
In the summer of 1877, a gentleman with whom I was well acquainted
|