| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: City ferryboat, but these North German Lloyd ships always
sail with a certain ceremony and solemnity. I like it."
"I always cross on them," said Dr. Watts. "I have but a
month's vacation--two weeks on board ship, two on land.
Now you, I suppose, don't have to count your days?
You cross every year. I can't see, for my part, what
business the assistant editor of a magazine has abroad."
"Oh, we make a specialty of articles from notorieties
over there; statesmen, scientific fellows, or people with
titles. I expect to capture a paper from Lorne and some
sketches by the Princess Beatrice this time."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: "You--and Dr. Petrie," she replied swiftly, "must enter first,
and bring out Aziz. Until he is safe--until he is out of that place--
you are to make no attempt upon--"
"Upon Dr. Fu-Manchu?" interrupted Weymouth; for Karamaneh
hesitated to pronounce the dreaded name, as she always did.
"But how can we be sure that there is no trap laid for us?"
The Scotland Yard man did not entirely share my confidence in the integrity
of this Eastern girl whom he knew to have been a creature of the Chinaman's.
"Aziz lies in the private room," she explained eagerly, her old accent more
noticeable than usual. "There is only one of the Burmese men in the house,
and he--he dare not enter without orders!"
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: in the foetal life, at birth, and through infancy though the organs of sex
serve to distinguish the male from the female, there is in the general
structure and working of the organism little or nothing to divide the
sexes.
Even when puberty is reached, with its enormous development of sexual and
reproductive activity modifying those parts of the organism with which it
is concerned, and producing certain secondary sexual characteristics, there
yet remains the major extent of the human body and of physical function
little, or not at all, affected by sex modification. The eye, the ear, the
sense of touch, the general organs of nutrition and respiration and
volition are in the main identical, and often differ far more in persons of
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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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: (for all this the geometers suppose to be in the object they contemplate),
I went over some of their simplest demonstrations. And, in the first
place, I observed, that the great certitude which by common consent is
accorded to these demonstrations, is founded solely upon this, that they
are clearly conceived in accordance with the rules I have already laid
down In the next place, I perceived that there was nothing at all in these
demonstrations which could assure me of the existence of their object:
thus, for example, supposing a triangle to be given, I distinctly
perceived that its three angles were necessarily equal to two right
angles, but I did not on that account perceive anything which could assure
me that any triangle existed: while, on the contrary, recurring to the
Reason Discourse |
