| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: seemed at first, going with a rolling motion and as fast as
flying birds.
Then, advancing obliquely towards us, came a fifth. Their
armoured bodies glittered in the sun as they swept swiftly
forward upon the guns, growing rapidly larger as they drew
nearer. One on the extreme left, the remotest that is, flour-
ished a huge case high in the air, and the ghostly, terrible
Heat-Ray I had already seen on Friday night smote towards
Chertsey, and struck the town.
At sight of these strange, swift, and terrible creatures the
crowd near the water's edge seemed to me to be for a moment
War of the Worlds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: these establishments, could a Russian be brought to the state of
this tramp, who excelled Nietzsche's newest teaching, and held
that everything was possible and nothing forbidden, and who
spread this teaching first among the convicts and then among the
people in general.
The only explanation of all that was being done was the wish to
put a stop to crime by fear, by correction, by lawful vengeance
as it was written in the books. But in reality nothing in the
least resembling any of these results came to pass. Instead of
vice being put a stop to, it only spread further; instead of
being frightened, the criminals were encouraged (many a tramp
Resurrection |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: tumbled lowland forest, thrid with rough streams, and strewn with
monstrous boulders; the peaks (as I say) silver, for already at the
higher altitudes the snow fell nightly; but the woods and the low
ground only breathed upon with frost. All day heaven had been
charged with ugly vapours, in the which the sun swam and glimmered
like a shilling piece; all day the wind blew on our left cheek
barbarous cold, but very pure to breathe. With the end of the
afternoon, however, the wind fell; the clouds, being no longer
reinforced, were scattered or drunk up; the sun set behind us with
some wintry splendour, and the white brow of the mountains shared
its dying glow.
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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 Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: emotions the chaste heart seeks to veil, which cannot escape the shock
of startled modesty. The more delicacy a woman has, the more she seeks
to hide the joys that are in her soul. Many women, incomprehensible in
their tender caprices, long to hear a name pronounced which at other
times they desire to bury in their hearts. Monsieur de Bourbonne did
not interpret Madame Firmiani's agitation exactly in this way: pray
forgive him, all provincials are distrustful.
"Well, monsieur?" said Madame Firmiani, giving him one of those clear,
lucid glances in which we men can never see anything because they
question us too much.
"Well, madame," returned the old man, "do you know what some one came
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