| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: and fled. . . . Ah! but you should have seen stir-
ring behind the dull, blurred glance of these eyes
the spectre of the fear which had hunted her on
that night three miles and a half to the door of Fos-
ter's cottage! I did the next day.
"And it was I who found him lying face down
and his body in a puddle, just outside the little
wicket-gate.
"I had been called out that night to an urgent
case in the village, and on my way home at day-
break passed by the cottage. The door stood open.
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: XIV.
Good night, good rest. Ah, neither be my share:
She bade good night that kept my rest away;
And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd with care,
To descant on the doubts of my decay.
'Farewell,' quoth she, 'and come again tomorrow:
Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow.
Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,
In scorn or friendship, nill I construe whether:
'T may be, she joy'd to jest at my exile,
'T may be, again to make me wander thither:
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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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: for a flash. Like a pistol, he could kill at one moment, and the
next he might he kicked aside. But just then, as he walked the long
floors in his alternate humours, tearing his handkerchief between
his hands, he was strung to his top note, every nerve attent. The
pistol, you might say, was charged. And when jealousy from time to
time fetched him a lash across the tenderest of his feeling, and
sent a string of her fire-pictures glancing before his mind's eye,
the contraction of his face was even dangerous. He disregarded
jealousy's inventions, yet they stung. In this height of anger, he
still preserved his faith in Seraphina's innocence; but the thought
of her possible misconduct was the bitterest ingredient in his pot
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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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: that he never looked better, and asked him how I looked. He would
look at me presently, he said, and decide. Mrs. Bliss skimmed by us
with nods and smiles; as she vanished our eyes followed her, and we
talked vaguely on various matters, sounding ourselves and each
other. When a furious redowa set in which cut our conversation into
rhythm he pushed up the window and said, "Look out."
I turned my face to him to do so, and saw the moon at the full,
riding through the strip of sky which our vision commanded. From
the moon our eyes fell on each other. After a moment's silence,
during which I returned his steadfast gaze, for I could not help
it, he said:
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