| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: have little right to interfere--you are not my husband."
"God forbid!" said Sir Philip hastily; instantly adding,
however, "God forbid that I should deprive my friend Sir Geoffrey
of so inestimable a treasure."
"But you are my sister's husband," replied the lady; "and I
suppose you are aware of her present distress of mind--"
"If hearing of nothing else from morning to night can make me
aware of it," said Sir Philip, "I should know something of the
matter."
"I do not pretend to reply to your wit, Sir Philip," answered
Lady Bothwell; "but you must be sensible that all this distress
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: that had volumes of meaning in it, if Marie could only have
understood it.
"So, you just see," she continued, "what you've got to manage.
A household without any rule; where servants have it all their
own way, do what they please, and have what they please, except
so far as I, with my feeble health, have kept up government.
I keep my cowhide about, and sometimes I do lay it on; but the
exertion is always too much for me. If St. Clare would only have
this thing done as others do--"
"And how's that?"
"Why, send them to the calaboose, or some of the other places
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Faith of Men by Jack London: think something was doin' up there, 'stead of bein' a mere stampede
of greenhorns an' tinhorns."
But a boat came into view from downstream. It was long and slim.
It hugged the bank closely, and its three occupants, standing
upright, propelled it against the stiff current by means of long
poles.
"Circle City outfit," said the storekeeper. "I was lookin' for 'em
along by afternoon. Forty Mile had the start of them by a hundred
and seventy miles. But gee! they ain't losin' any time!"
'We'll just sit here quiet-like and watch 'em string by," Bill said
complacently.
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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 Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: on the same effects from the same causes. But the circumstances
of the preceding day had made an essential alteration in the case.
The baron knew well, from the intelligence he had received,
that the earl's offence was past remission: which would
have been of less moment but for the awful fact of his castle
being in the possession of the king's forces, and in those days
possession was considerably more than eleven points of the law.
The baron was therefore convinced that the earl's outlawry
was infallible, and that Matilda must either renounce
her lover, or become with him an outlaw and a fugitive.
In proportion, therefore, to the baron's knowledge of the strength
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