| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: speculatively on the mountain range, close, bleak and mysterious.
"Strange thing," he commented. "Here's a man, a book-lover and
student, who comes out here, not to make living and be a useful
member of the community, but apparently to bury himself alive.
I wonder, why."
"A great many come out here to get away from something, Mr. Bassett."
"Yes, to start again. But this man never started again. He
apparently just quit."
Mrs. Wasson put down her sewing and looked at him thoughtfully.
"Did the boys tell you anything about the young man who visited
Henry Livingstone now and then?"
The Breaking Point |
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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: Later in the afternoon we had a cautious try at whispering.
The Sunday quietness of the ship was against us; the stillness
of air and water around her was against us; the elements,
the men were against us--everything was against us in our
secret partnership; time itself--for this could not go on forever.
The very trust in Providence was, I suppose, denied to his guilt.
Shall I confess that this thought cast me down very much?
And as to the chapter of accidents which counts for so much
in the book of success, I could only hope that it was closed.
For what favorable accident could be expected?
"Did you hear everything?" were my first words as soon as we took
The Secret Sharer |
