| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: and in at the university before one can lavish anything at all upon them!"
"But Love is not a question of lavishing," said the Advanced Lady. "It is
the lamp carried in the bosom touching with serene rays all the heights and
depths of--"
"Darkest Africa," I murmured flippantly.
She did not hear.
"The mistake we have made in the past--as a sex," said she, "is in not
realising that our gifts of giving are for the whole world--we are the glad
sacrifice of ourselves!"
"Oh!" cried Elsa rapturously, and almost bursting into gifts as she
breathed--"how I know that! You know ever since Fritz and I have been
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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 Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the Stygian darkness of the interior the shell of one of the great,
succulent fruits of the sorapus tree.
I could scarce restrain a shout of elation as this silent, insensate
messenger floated past me, on toward the Iss and Korus, for it
told me that journeying Martians were above me on that very stream.
They had eaten of this marvelous fruit which nature concentrates
within the hard shell of the sorapus nut, and having eaten had
cast the husk overboard. It could have come from no others than
the party I sought.
The Warlord of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: Mr. Edwards, the keeper, an elderly man and a worthy, readily
complied. It chanced they were no sooner in the room where the
regalia was kept, than the lady found herself taken suddenly and
unaccountably ill, and indeed feared she must die; before bidding
adieu to life, she begged for a little whisky. This was promptly
brought her, and Mrs. Edwards, who now appeared upon the scene,
invited the poor gentlewoman to rest upon her bed. Whilst she
complied with this kind request, the clergyman and Edwards had
time to improve their acquaintance, which indeed bade fair
towards speedily ripening into friendship.
And presently the lady recovering, she and her spouse took their
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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 Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: creditable house."--Madame Firmiani is metamorphosed into a house! but
the house is not a pile of stones architecturally superposed, of
course not, the word presents in Lounger's language an indescribable
idiom.--Here the Lounger, a spare man with an agreeable smile, a sayer
of pretty nothings with more acquired cleverness than native wit,
stoops to your ear and adds, with a shrewd glance: "I have never seen
Monsieur Firmiani. His social position is that of looking after
property in Italy. Madame Firmiani is a Frenchwoman, and spends her
money like a Parisian. She has excellent tea. It is one of the few
houses where you can amuse yourself; the refreshments are exquisite.
It is very difficult to get admitted; therefore, of course, one meets
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