| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: he and his father and his grandfather had done the very same thing
hundreds of times before. Kala Nag did not answer to the order by
gurgling, as he usually did. He stood still, looking out across
the moonlight, his head a little raised and his ears spread like
fans, up to the great folds of the Garo hills.
"Tend to him if he grows restless in the night," said Big
Toomai to Little Toomai, and he went into the hut and slept.
Little Toomai was just going to sleep, too, when he heard the coir
string snap with a little "tang," and Kala Nag rolled out of his
pickets as slowly and as silently as a cloud rolls out of the
mouth of a valley. Little Toomai pattered after him, barefooted,
The Jungle Book |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: had fled, wonder audibly what he might mean. To
this Hermann, crossing his legs with a swing and
settling himself viciously away from me in his chair,
said: "That fellow don't know himself what he
means."
There might have been some insight in such a
remark. I said nothing, and, still averted, he
added: "When I was here last year he was just
the same." An eruption of tobacco smoke envel-
oped his head as if his temper had exploded like
gunpowder.
Falk |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: in her knitting.
"It is not because I think I am beautiful," said Gertrude,
looking all round. "I don't think I am beautiful, at all."
She spoke with a sort of conscious deliberateness; and it seemed very
strange to Charlotte to hear her discussing this question so publicly.
"It is because I think it would be amusing to sit and be painted.
I have always thought that."
"I am sorry you have not had better things to think about, my daughter,"
said Mr. Wentworth.
"You are very beautiful, cousin Gertrude," Felix declared.
"That 's a compliment," said Gertrude. "I put all the compliments
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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 The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: full possession of his reason. The Marquis d'Espard, whose face was
usually pale, as are those of fair men, suddenly turned scarlet with
anger; he trembled for an instant, sat down, laid his paper on the
chimney-piece, and looked down. In a moment he had recovered his
gentlemanly dignity, and looked steadily at the judge, as if to read
in his countenance the indications of his character.
"How is it, monsieur," he asked, "that I have had no notice of such a
petition?"
"Monsieur le Marquis, persons on whom such a commission is held not
being supposed to have the use of their reason, any notice of the
petition is unnecessary. The duty of the Court chiefly consists in
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