| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: to watch Catherine.
Chiverni had come from Paris and Ecouen. The last to arrive was Saint-
Andre, who was marshal of France and became so important that the
Guises, whose creature he was, made him the third person in the
triumvirate they formed the following year against Catherine. The
other /seigneur/ who had arrived during the night was Vieilleville,
also a creature of the Guises and a marshal of France, who was
returning from a secret mission known only to the Grand Master, who
had entrusted it to him. As for Saint-Andre, he was in charge of
military measures taken with the object of driving all Reformers under
arms into Amboise; a scheme which now formed the subject of a council
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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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: 'I'll tell you what,' he said, 'you leave this entirely in my
hands. I'll sift the matter. I've an idea, at any rate; and
detectives,' he added appealingly, 'are so expensive.'
'The bank would not hear of it,' returned Mr Judkin. 'The bank
stands to lose between three and four thousand pounds; it will
spend as much more if necessary. An undiscovered forger is a
permanent danger. We shall clear it up to the bottom, Mr
Finsbury; set your mind at rest on that.'
'Then I'll stand the loss,' said Morris boldly. 'I order you to
abandon the search.' He was determined that no enquiry should be
made.
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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 Arizona Nights by Stewart Edward White: and slipped down the bluff, getting pretty well stuck up with the
cholla spines.
At the beach we found Billy Simpson lying on his ace, shot
through the back. We turned him over, but he was apparently
dead. Anderson had hoisted the sail, had cut loose from the
anchor, and was sailing away.
Denton stood up straight and tall, looking. Then he pulled his
belt in a hole, grabbed my arm, and started to run up the long
curve of the beach. Behind us came Schwartz. We ran near a
mile, and then fell among some tules in an inlet at the farther
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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 Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: imagination, as always, worked, and he asked himself if this side
of life were not somehow connected, for those who figured on it
with the fact of marriage. Would HIS relation to it, had he married
ten years before, have become now the same as Pocock's? Might it
even become the same should he marry in a few months? Should he
ever know himself as much out of the question for Mrs. Newsome as
Jim knew himself--in a dim way--for Mrs. Jim?
To turn his eyes in that direction was to be personally reassured;
he was different from Pocock; he had affirmed himself differently
and was held after all in higher esteem. What none the less came
home to him, however, at this hour, was that the society over
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