| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: ask them pretty resolutely, before we could learn anything.
At last her answer came.
"I can see nothing. We are still. There are no waves lapping,
but only a steady swirl of water softly running against
the hawser. I can hear men's voices calling, near and far,
and the roll and creak of oars in the rowlocks.
A gun is fired somewhere, the echo of it seems far away.
There is tramping of feet overhead, and ropes and chains are
dragged along. What is this? There is a gleam of light.
I can feel the air blowing upon me."
Here she stopped. She had risen, as if impulsively, from where she lay
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: Alice pressed open the door. The bell jangled, the red serge curtains
parted, and Mrs. Stubbs appeared. With her broad smile and the long bacon
knife in her hand, she looked like a friendly brigand. Alice was welcomed
so warmly that she found it quite difficult to keep up her "manners." They
consisted of persistent little coughs and hems, pulls at her gloves, tweaks
at her skirt, and a curious difficulty in seeing what was set before her or
understanding what was said.
Tea was laid on the parlour table--ham, sardines, a whole pound of butter,
and such a large johnny cake that it looked like an advertisement for
somebody's baking-powder. But the Primus stove roared so loudly that it
was useless to try to talk above it. Alice sat down on the edge of 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 Lysis by Plato: all-wise eristics be down upon us in triumph, and ask, fairly enough,
whether love is not the very opposite of hate; and what answer shall we
make to them--must we not admit that they speak the truth?
We must.
They will then proceed to ask whether the enemy is the friend of the
friend, or the friend the friend of the enemy?
Neither, he replied.
Well, but is a just man the friend of the unjust, or the temperate of the
intemperate, or the good of the bad?
I do not see how that is possible.
And yet, I said, if friendship goes by contraries, the contraries must be
Lysis |
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 Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: nothing. You may talk to me without fear; I never repeat a word of
what any one may choose to tell me. How can you suppose I should ever
break that rule of conduct? No one would ever trust me again."
"I know," said Crevel; "you are the very jewel of old maids. Still,
come, there are exceptions. Look here, the family have never settled
an allowance on you?"
"But I have my pride," said Lisbeth. "I do not choose to be an expense
to anybody."
"If you will but help me to my revenge," the tradesman went on, "I
will sink ten thousand francs in an annuity for you. Tell me, my fair
cousin, tell me who has stepped into Josepha's shoes, and you will
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