| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: that are represented as coming from southern and eastern countries,
where they are fabled to serve as the counterpanes of the
peasantry, and bedecked with pottery of vivid hues, ranged on
casual shelves, and with many water-colour drawings from the hand
(as the visitor learned) of the young lady herself, commemorating
with a brave breadth the sunsets, the mountains, the temples and
palaces of India. He sat an hour - more than an hour, two hours -
and all the while no one came in. His hostess was so good as to
remark, with her liberal humanity, that it was delightful they
weren't interrupted; it was so rare in London, especially at that
season, that people got a good talk. But luckily now, of a fine
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: "Oh--I didn't think it was you! I didn't--Oh, Jude!" A hysterical
catch in her breath ended in a succession of them. He advanced,
but she quickly recovered and went back.
"Don't go--don't go!" he implored. "This is my last time!
I thought it would be less intrusive than to enter your house.
And I shall never come again. Don't then be unmerciful. Sue, Sue!
We are acting by the letter; and 'the letter killeth'!"
"I'll stay--I won't be unkind!" she said, her mouth quivering
and her tears flowing as she allowed him to come closer.
"But why did you come, and do this wrong thing, after doing such
a right thing as you have done?"
Jude the Obscure |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: That I was to be caught and almost finished in the closing was
happily unknown to us all.
It was late when I got up. I lay in my bed, looking around the
four walls of the room, and trying to imagine behind what one of
them a secret chamber might lie. Certainly, in daylight,
Sunnyside deserved its name: never was a house more cheery and
open, less sinister in general appearance. There was not a
corner apparently that was not open and above-board, and
yet, somewhere behind its handsomely papered walls I believed
firmly that there lay a hidden room, with all the possibilities
it would involve.
The Circular Staircase |
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: in the wide gown and began conducting with both hands. "...I feel more and
more strongly that our marriage would be a mistake..." she beat. And the
voices cried: "Fleetly! Ah, Fleetly." What could have possessed him to
write such a letter! What could have led up to it! It came out of
nothing. His last letter had been all about a fumed-oak bookcase he had
bought for "our" books, and a "natty little hall-stand" he had seen, "a
very neat affair with a carved owl on a bracket, holding three hat-brushes
in its claws." How she had smiled at that! So like a man to think one
needed three hat-brushes! "From the Listening Ear," sang the voices.
"Once again," said Miss Meadows. "But this time in parts. Still without
expression." "Fast! Ah, too Fast." With the gloom of the contraltos
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