| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: content with that, informed some banditti that were then in those
parts of the road we were to travel through, so that the patriarch
and some missionaries were attacked in a desert by these rovers,
with their captain at their head, who pillaged his library, his
ornaments, and what little baggage the missionaries had left, and
might have gone away without resistance or interruption had they
satisfied themselves with only robbing; but when they began to fall
upon the missionaries and their companions, our countrymen, finding
that their lives could only be preserved by their courage, charged
their enemies with such vigour that they killed their chief and
forced the rest to a precipitate flight. But these rovers, being
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: towards the afternoon Dick met the latter returning from the
direction of the inn, where he had struck up quite a
friendship with the landlord. Dick wondered who paid for
these excursions, and at the thought that the reprobate must
get his pocket money where he got his board and lodging, from
poor Esther's generosity, he had it almost in his heart to
knock the old gentleman down. He, on his part, was full of
airs and graces and geniality.
'Dear Dick,' he said, taking his arm, 'this is neighbourly of
you; it shows your tact to meet me when I had a wish for you.
I am in pleasant spirits; and it is then that I desire a
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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 The Contrast by Royall Tyler: to make myself miserable: no parent in the world
should oblige me to marry the man I did not like.
MARIA
Oh! my dear, you never lived with your parents,
and do not know what influence a father's frowns have
upon a daughter's heart. Besides, what have I to
alledge against Mr. Dimple, to justify myself to the
world? He carries himself so smoothly, that every
one would impute the blame to me, and call me capri-
cious.
CHARLOTTE
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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 In the Cage by Henry James: more dreadful and overwhelming. She stared straight away in
silence till she felt she looked an idiot; then, to say something,
to say nothing, she attempted a sound which ended in a flood of
tears.
CHAPTER XVI
Her tears helped her really to dissimulate, for she had instantly,
in so public a situation, to recover herself. They had come and
gone in half a minute, and she immediately explained them. "It's
only because I'm tired. It's that--it's that!" Then she added a
trifle incoherently: "I shall never see you again."
"Ah but why not?" The mere tone in which her companion asked this
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