| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: limbs were well made, and I was both deep and broad in the chest.
In colour I was, and my white hair notwithstanding, am still
extraordinarily dark hued, my eyes also were large and dark, and my
hair, which was wavy, was coal black. In my deportment I was
reserved and grave to sadness, in speech I was slow and temperate,
and more apt at listening than in talking. I weighed matters well
before I made up my mind upon them, but being made up, nothing
could turn me from that mind short of death itself, whether it were
set on good or evil, on folly or wisdom. In those days also I had
little religion, since, partly because of my father's secret
teaching and partly through the workings of my own reason, I had
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: the discomfort, amounting at times to positive pain, caused by the
soroche.
Hardly ever did we find ground sufficiently broad for a
breathing space, save when our arriero led us, almost by
magic it seemed, to a camping place for the night. We would ascend
the side of a narrow valley; on one hand roared a torrent some
hundreds of feet below; on the other rose an uncompromising wall of
rock. So narrow would be the track that as I sat astride my mule
my outside leg would be hanging over the abyss.
But the grandeur, the novelty, and the variety of the scenery
repaid us; and Le Mire loved the danger for its own sake. Time and
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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 Poems by Bronte Sisters: The more that anguish racks, the earlier it will bless;
And robed in fires of hell, or bright with heavenly shine,
If it but herald death, the vision is divine!"
She ceased to speak, and we, unanswering, turned to go--
We had no further power to work the captive woe:
Her cheek, her gleaming eye, declared that man had given
A sentence, unapproved, and overruled by Heaven.
HOPE.
Hope Was but a timid friend;
She sat without the grated den,
Watching how my fate would tend,
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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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: your party and betray its plans,--there are always traitors enough for
that, and the proof is in the prisons of Blois; tell me only on what
terms are the queen-mother and the Prince de Conde?"
"I know nothing about it, monseigneur," replied Christophe Lecamus.
The physician came, examined the victim, and said that he could bear
the eighth wedge.
"Then insert it," said the cardinal. "After all, as the queen says, he
is only a heretic," he added, looking at Christophe with a dreadful
smile.
At this moment Catherine came with slow steps from the adjoining
apartment and stood before Christophe, coldly observing him. Instantly
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