| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: his handsome, rather vacuous face.
Judson Clark had taken his yacht and gone to Europe, and was
reported from here and there not too favorably. But when be came
back, in early September, he had apparently recovered from his
infatuation, was his old, carefully dressed self again, and when
interviewed declared his intention of spending the winter on his
Wyoming ranch.
Of course he must have heard of Lucas's breakdown, and equally, of
course, he must have seen them both. What happened at that
interview, by what casual attitude he allayed Lucas's probable
jealousy and the girl's own nervousness, Bassett had no way of
The Breaking Point |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Was wont to swell like round and orient pearles;
Stood now within the pretty flouriets eyes,
Like teares that did their owne disgrace bewaile.
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And she in milde termes beg'd my patience,
I then did aske of her, her changeling childe,
Which straight she gaue me, and her fairy sent
To beare him to my Bower in Fairy Land.
And now I haue the Boy, I will vndoe
This hatefull imperfection of her eyes.
And gentle Pucke, take this transformed scalpe,
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: "It was. I did. I have. But for me you would not. You are.
I took the rooms. I drove the car nearly the whole way down. I
got you all here. I sent the luggage on in advance."
"With the result that it got here two days after we did, and I
had to wear the same tie three days running, and go down to bathe
in patent-leather boots, thanks very much," said Berry.
Beyond saying that I was not responsible for the crass and
purblind idiocy of railway officials, I ignored this expression
of ingratitude and continued to deal with Daphne.
"You know," I said, "there are times when I tremble for you.
Only yesterday, just before dinner, I trembled for you like
The Brother of Daphne |
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 Dracula by Bram Stoker: As I passed over he moved back, and his exclamation of horror,
"Gott in Himmel!" needed no enforcement from his agonized face.
He raised his hand and pointed to the bed, and his iron face
was drawn and ashen white. I felt my knees begin to tremble.
There on the bed, seemingly in a swoon, lay poor Lucy, more horribly
white and wan-looking than ever. Even the lips were white,
and the gums seemed to have shrunken back from the teeth,
as we sometimes see in a corpse after a prolonged illness.
Van Helsing raised his foot to stamp in anger, but the instinct
of his life and all the long years of habit stood to him,
and he put it down again softly.
Dracula |
