| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: either for the body of the victim or for the murderers. When the
men left the room the magistrate locked the door and put the key
in his own pocket. The gendarme in the neighbouring apartment was
sent down to stand in the courtyard at the entrance to the house.
The sexton, a little hunchback, was ordered to remain in the vestry
at the other end of the passage from the church to the house.
Then the thorough search of the house began. Every room in both
stories, every corner of the attic and the cellar, was looked over
thoroughly. The stable, the barns, the garden and even the well
underwent a close examination. There was no trace of a body
anywhere, not even a trail of blood, nothing which would give the
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: nowhere to go; there are some, too, who insist on living there,
there's no turning them out. A queer old man!"
Again the flying horses, the strange voice of drunken Nikanor,
the wind and the persistent snow, which got into one's eyes,
one's mouth, and every fold of one's fur coat. . . .
"Well, I am running a rig," I thought, while my bells chimed in
with the doctor's, the wind whistled, the coachmen shouted; and
while this frantic uproar was going on, I recalled all the
details of that strange wild day, unique in my life, and it
seemed to me that I really had gone out of my mind or become a
different man. It was as though the man I had been till that day
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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 The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: the Happy Prince shall praise me."
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE
"She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses,"
cried the young Student; "but in all my garden there is no red
rose."
From her nest in the holm-oak tree the Nightingale heard him, and
she looked out through the leaves, and wondered.
"No red rose in all my garden!" he cried, and his beautiful eyes
filled with tears. "Ah, on what little things does happiness
depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all
the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is
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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 Lady Susan by Jane Austen: require a delicacy and cautiousness of conduct to which we have hitherto
been too little attentive. We have been hurried on by our feelings to a
degree of precipitation which ill accords with the claims of our friends or
the opinion of the world. We have been unguarded in forming this hasty
engagement, but we must not complete the imprudence by ratifying it while
there is so much reason to fear the connection would be opposed by those
friends on whom you depend. It is not for us to blame any expectations on
your father's side of your marrying to advantage; where possessions are so
extensive as those of your family, the wish of increasing them, if not
strictly reasonable, is too common to excite surprize or resentment. He has
a right to require; a woman of fortune in his daughter-in-law, and I am
Lady Susan |
