| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: 'Monsieur will go,' he answered coolly. 'There are no
strangers in the village to-day,' he added, with a
significant smile.
'Do you mean to kidnap me?' I replied, in a rage.
But behind the rage was something else--I will not call
it terror, for the brave feel no terror but it was near
akin to it. I had had to do with rough men all my life,
but there was a grimness and truculence in the aspect of
these three that shook me. When I thought of the dark
paths and narrow lanes and cliff sides we must traverse,
whichever road we took, I trembled.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: able roundness of her arm like a skin; and her very
dress, stretched on her bust, seemed to palpitate
like a living tissue with the strength of vitality ani-
mating her body. How good her complexion was,
the outline of her soft cheek and the small convo-
luted conch of her rosy ear! To pull her needle she
kept the little finger apart from the others; it
seemed a waste of power to see her sewing--eter-
nally sewing--with that industrious and precise
movement of her arm, going on eternally upon all
the oceans, under all the skies, in innumerable har-
Falk |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Man makes fiction: he invents stories, pretty enough, fantastical
enough. But out of what does he make them up? Out of a few
things in this great world which he has seen, and heard, and felt,
just as he makes up his dreams. But who makes truth? Who makes
facts? Who, but God?
Then truth is as much larger than fiction, as God is greater than
man; as much larger as the whole universe is larger than the
little corner of it that any man, even the greatest poet or
philosopher, can see; and as much grander, and as much more
beautiful, and as much more strange. For one is the whole, and
the other is one, a few tiny scraps of the whole. The one is the
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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 A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: parted in two brown bands over a forehead as white as snow, gave her
an expression of innocence which no other feature contradicted.
Enjoyment seemed to have made Caroline as light as the straw of her
hat; but when she saw the Gentleman in Black, radiant hope suddenly
eclipsed her bright dress and her beauty. The Stranger, who appeared
to be in doubt, had not perhaps made up his mind to be the girl's
escort for the day till this revelation of the delight she felt on
seeing him. He at once hired a vehicle with a fairly good horse, to
drive to Saint-Leu-Taverny, and he offered Madame Crochard and her
daughter seats by his side. The mother accepted without ado; but
presently, when they were already on the way to Saint-Denis, she was
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