| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: whom he had seen going into the other inn with her mother,
and suggested that she had just emerged from the little church.
He suspected, however--I hardly know why--that she had been
looking at him for some moments before he perceived her.
It would perhaps be impertinent to inquire what she thought
of him; but Longueville, in the space of an instant,
made two or three reflections upon the young lady.
One of them was to the effect that she was a handsome creature,
but that she looked rather bold; the burden of the other
was that--yes, decidedly--she was a compatriot. She turned
away almost as soon as she met his eyes; he had hardly time
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: and stopped. The second mate had crossed from the other side of the poop
and might have been hanging over the rail for all we knew.
"He couldn't hear us talking--could he?" My double breathed
into my very ear, anxiously.
His anxiety was in answer, a sufficient answer, to the question
I had put to him. An answer containing all the difficulty
of that situation. I closed the porthole quietly, to make sure.
A louder word might have been overheard.
"Who's that?" he whispered then.
"My second mate. But I don't know much more of the fellow than you do."
And I told him a little about myself. I had been appointed to take
The Secret Sharer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: must be boiling in his veins. An intense realisation of that agony
came to his mind, and overcame every other feeling. For a moment
he stood irresolute, and then, turning to the truck, he hastily
tilted its contents upon the struggling thing that had once been a
man. The mass fell with a thud, and went radiating over the cone.
With the thud the shriek ended, and a boiling confusion of smoke,
dust, and flame came rushing up towards him. As it passed, he saw
the cone clear again.
Then he staggered back, and stood trembling, clinging to the
rail with both hands. His lips moved, but no words came to them.
Down below was the sound of voices and running steps. The
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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 Heroes by Charles Kingsley: tall and stately man.
'Do not be angry, strangers; the sailor boys must have their
jest. But we will treat you justly and kindly, for strangers
and poor men come from God; and you seem no common sailors by
your strength, and height, and weapons. Come up with me to
the palace of Alcinous, the rich sea-going king, and we will
feast you well and heartily; and after that you shall tell us
your name.'
But Medeia hung back, and trembled, and whispered in Jason's
ear, 'We are betrayed, and are going to our ruin, for I see
my countrymen among the crowd; dark-eyed Colchi in steel
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