| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: "But I would walk with pleasure. I want to get away at once."
He smiled, such a soft, smooth, diabolical smile that I
knew there was some trick behind his smoothness. He said,
"And your baggage?"
"I do not care about it. I can send for it some other time."
The Count stood up, and said, with a sweet courtesy which made
me rub my eyes, it seemed so real, "You English have a saying
which is close to my heart, for its spirit is that which rules
our boyars, `Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.'
Come with me, my dear young friend. Not an hour shall you wait
in my house against your will, though sad am I at your going,and
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: at the thought of the letter in her pocket, she added, 'It is
amazing. I should have thought her too good a woman of business!'
After which she concentrated her whole attention upon the
necessities of departure. Her single immediate apprehension was
that Horace Innes might, by some magic of circumstances, be
transported back into Simla before she could get out of it. That
such a contingency was physically impossible made no difference to
her nerves, and to the last Brookes was the hurrying victim of
unnecessary promptings.
The little rambling hotel of Kalka, where the railway spreads out
over the plains, raises its white-washed shelter under the very
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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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: I was glad it was only kittens this time, for she had been once
before this afternoon on purpose, as she informed me, sitting herself
down on the grass at my feet, to ask about the lieber Gott, it being
Sunday and her pious little nurse's conversation having run, as it seems,
on heaven and angels.
Her questions about the lieber Gott are better left unrecorded,
and I was relieved when she began about the angels.
"What do they wear for clothes?" she asked in her German-English.
"Why, you've seen them in pictures," I answered,
"in beautiful, long dresses, and with big, white wings."
"Feathers?" she asked.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
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 The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: as a woman. I had to slam the door, and there I stood, all of a tremble,
till I knew he had gone. When I opened the door--believe me or not, madam-
-that man was gone! I ran out into the road just as I was, in my apron and
my house-shoes, and there I stayed in the middle of the road...staring.
People must have laughed if they saw me...
...Goodness gracious!--What's that? It's the clock striking! And here
I've been keeping you awake. Oh, madam, you ought to have stopped me...Can
I tuck in your feet? I always tuck in my lady's feet, every night, just
the same. And she says, "Good night, Ellen. Sleep sound and wake early!"
I don't know what I should do if she didn't say that, now.
...Oh dear, I sometimes think...whatever should I do if anything were
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