| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: wedding-service had calmed down. Her eyes could dwell
upon details more clearly now, and Mr and Mrs Crick
having directed their own gig to be sent for them, to
leave the carriage to the young couple, she observed
the build and character of that conveyance for the
first time. Sitting in silence she regarded it long.
"I fancy you seem oppressed, Tessy," said Clare.
"Yes," she answered, putting her hand to her brow.
"I tremble at many things. It is all so serious, Angel.
Among other things I seem to have seen this carriage
before, to very well acquainted with it. It is very
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: interest on what I've lent her. Do you want to marry there,
simpleton?" she added, addressing Gazonal; "then pay me forty francs
and I'll talk four hundred worth."
Gazonal produced a forty-franc gold-piece, and Madame Nourrisson gave
him startling details as to the secret penury of certain so-called
fashionable women. This dealer in cast-off clothes, getting lively as
she talked, pictured herself unconsciously while telling of others.
Without betraying a single name or any secret, she made the three men
shudder by proving to them how little so-called happiness existed in
Paris that did not rest on the vacillating foundation of borrowed
money. She possessed, laid away in her drawers, the secrets of
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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 At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: and which softened our progress to a cautious tiptoeing and crawling
over the increasingly littered floor and heaps of debris.
Danforth’s
eyes as well as nose proved better than mine, for it was likewise
he who first noticed the queer aspect of the debris after we had
passed many half-choked arches leading to chambers and corridors
on the ground level. It did not look quite as it ought after countless
thousands of years of desertion, and when we cautiously turned
on more light we saw that a kind of swath seemed to have been
lately tracked through it. The irregular nature of the litter
precluded any definite marks, but in the smoother places there
At the Mountains of Madness |
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 Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: Nucingen crying; she is afraid for her fortune.'
" 'Poor little thing!' said the old Alsacien Jew, with an ironical
expression. 'Well?' he added, as du Tillet was silent.
" 'Well. At my place I have a thousand shares of a thousand francs in
our concern; Nucingen handed them over to me to put on the market, do
you understand? Good. Now let us buy up a million of Nucingen's paper
at a discount of ten or twenty per cent, and we shall make a handsome
percentage out of it. We shall be debtors and creditors both;
confusion will be worked! But we must set about it carefully, or the
holders may imagine that we are operating in Nucingen's interests.'
"Then Werbrust understood. He squeezed du Tillet's hand with an
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