| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Paris afterward. Between his own canvases and Ahmedabad balconies
and Delhi embroideries and Burmese Buddhas and other things he
seemed to have carried off the whole place.'
'But they don't come up here ever. They come in the cold weather,
and as they can get plenty of snow and ice at home, they stay down
in the plains with the palm-trees.'
'Precisely; they do,' I said.
'And besides,' Dora went on, with increasing excitement, 'this isn't
a master. You see, he doesn't send a single picture--only these
tiny things. And there's a certain tentativeness'--Miss Harris, her
parasol handle pressed against her lips, looked at me with an
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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 Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: by praising the skill with which she made or prepared her preserves
and pickles and pates and other gastronomical inventions. To cap all,
the wily canon never left his landlady's yellow salon after dinner
without remarking that there was no house in Tours where he could get
such good coffee as that he had just imbibed.
Thanks to this thorough understanding of Mademoiselle Gamard's
character, and to the science of existence which he had put in
practice for the last twelve years, no matter of discussion on the
internal arrangements of the household had ever come up between them.
The Abbe Chapeloud had taken note of the spinster's angles,
asperities, and crabbedness, and had so arranged his avoidance of her
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: corpse with all three arms, she staggered with it to the extreme edge
of the gulf and, after an instant's hesitation, allowed it to drop
into the lava. It disappeared immediately without sound; a metallic
splash came up. That was Crimtyphon's funeral.
"Now I am ready, Maskull."
He did not answer, but stared past her. Another figure was standing,
erect and mournful, not far behind her. It was Joiwind. Her face
was wan, and there was an accusing look in her eyes. Maskull knew
that it was a phantasm, and that the real Joiwind was miles away, at
Poolingdred.
"Turn around, Tydomin," he said oddly, "and tell me what you see
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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 The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: "The face of a dream--the face of a dream. She was beautiful.
Not that beauty which is terrible, cold, and worshipful, like the
beauty of a saint; nor that beauty that stirs fierce passions; but
a sort of radiation, sweet lips that softened into smiles, and
grave gray eyes. And she moved gracefully, she seemed to have part
with all pleasant and gracious things--"
He stopped, and his face was downcast and hidden. Then he
looked up at me and went on, making no further attempt to disguise
his absolute belief in the reality of his story.
"You see, I had thrown up my plans and ambitions, thrown up
all I had ever worked for or desired for her sake. I had been a
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