| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: have it a quadrant--an old-fashioned, ebony quadrant. Have Billy
Isham buy it because it was cheap."
"How did it get out of order, Captain Jack?" inquired Blix. "That
would be a good technical detail, wouldn't it, Condy?"
"Well, it's like this. Our Mug an' Billy get a schooner that's so
bally small that they have to do their cooking in the cabin;
quadrant's on a rack over the stove, and the heat warps the
joints, so when Our Mug takes his observation he gets fifty miles
off his course and raises the land where the government forces are
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rezanov by Gertrude Atherton: cellency?" she asked quietly.
"Would you betray me if you thought I had?"
Her eyes responded for a moment to the mag-
netism of his, and then she drew herself up.
"No, senor, I could not betray a man who had
been our guest, and Spain needs no assistance from
a weak girl to hold her own against Russia."
"Well said! I kiss your hands, as they say in
Vienna. But we must sail again. I told them to be
ready at three o'clock."
Dalliance with the most alluring girl he had ever
 Rezanov |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: streets, and found himself, some time later, at the railway station,
without remembering how he got there.
Across from the station was a large billboard, and on it the name
of Beverly Carlysle and her play, "The Valley." He stood for some
time and looked at it, before he went in to buy his ticket. Not
until he was in the train did he realize that he had forgotten to
get his lunch.
He attended to his work that evening as usual, but he felt very
tired, and Lucy, going in at nine o'clock, found him dozing in his
chair, his collar half choking him and his face deeply suffused.
She wakened him and then, sitting down across from him, joined him
 The Breaking Point |
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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: the Duke of Gloucester, and his sister, the Princess Elizabeth,
he was placed under the care of Lord Northumberland, who had
joined the Republican cause.
Though by no means treated with unkindness, the young duke,
unhappy at the surveillance placed upon his actions and fearful
of the troubles quickly gathering over the kingdom, twice sought
escape. This was a serious offence in the eyes of Cromwell's
Parliament; a committee was accordingly sent to examine him, and
he was threatened with imprisonment in the Tower. Though only in
his fourteenth year he already possessed both determination and
courage, by reason of which he resolved to risk all danger, and
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