| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: about thirty; well enough looking, and much better educated than
any other girl in that part of the country, as became her
parentage. She held her head very high, and had already refused
several offers of marriage with a grand air, which had got her hard
names among the neighbours. For all that she was a good girl, and
one that would have made any man well contented.
Will had never seen much of her; for although the church and
parsonage were only two miles from his own door, he was never known
to go there but on Sundays. It chanced, however, that the
parsonage fell into disrepair, and had to be dismantled; and the
parson and his daughter took lodgings for a month or so, on very
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: outbursts of conceit which come so naturally to Frenchmen in the
expression of their feelings--"what is extraordinary in the fact of
your loving a young and beautiful woman, artist enough to be able to
earn her living like Tinti, and of giving you some of the pleasures of
vanity? What lout but would then become an Amadis? This is not in
question between you and me. What is needed is that we both love
faithfully, persistently; at a distance from each other for years,
with no satisfaction but that of knowing that we are loved."
"Alas!" said Rodolphe, "will you not consider my fidelity as devoid of
all merit when you see me absorbed in the efforts of devouring
ambition? Do you imagine that I can wish to see you one day exchange
Albert Savarus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: Nottingham Town, Robin Hood and all of his band going with him.
You may guess what a stir there was in the good town when
all these famous outlaws came marching into the streets.
As for the Sheriff, he knew not what to say nor where to look
when he saw Robin Hood in such high favor with the King,
while all his heart was filled with gall because of the vexation
that lay upon him.
The next day the King took leave of Nottingham Town; so Robin Hood
and Little John and Will Scarlet and Allan a Dale shook hands
with all the rest of the band, kissing the cheeks of each man,
and swearing that they would often come to Sherwood and see them.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
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 The Jolly Corner by Henry James: also, no doubt, the habit of too selfishly thinking - he affirmed
the impotence there of any other source of interest, any other
native appeal. "What would it have made of me, what would it have
made of me? I keep for ever wondering, all idiotically; as if I
could possibly know! I see what it has made of dozens of others,
those I meet, and it positively aches within me, to the point of
exasperation, that it would have made something of me as well.
Only I can't make out what, and the worry of it, the small rage of
curiosity never to be satisfied, brings back what I remember to
have felt, once or twice, after judging best, for reasons, to burn
some important letter unopened. I've been sorry, I've hated it -
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