| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: misunderstanding on that important point.
Mrs. Barry, not hearing or not comprehending, merely
shook hands and said kindly:
"How are you?"
"I am well in body although considerable rumpled up in
spirit, thank you ma'am," said Anne gravely. Then aside
to Marilla in an audible whisper, "There wasn't anything
startling in that, was there, Marilla?"
Diana was sitting on the sofa, reading a book which she
dropped when the callers entered. She was a very pretty
little girl, with her mother's black eyes and hair, and
Anne of Green Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: other instances of like large-mindedness on her part: shown in the
readiness with which she listened to my words and carried out my
wishes.
What sort of thing? (I answered). Do, pray, tell me, since I would far
more gladly learn about a living woman's virtues than that Zeuxis[1]
should show me the portrait of the loveliest woman he has painted.
[1] See "Mem." I. iv. 3.
Whereupon Ischomachus proceeded to narrate as follows: I must tell
you, Socrates, I one day noticed she was much enamelled with white
lead,[2] no doubt to enhance the natural whitenes of her skin; she had
rouged herself with alkanet[3] profusely, doubtless to give more
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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 Poems by Oscar Wilde: Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb
With crooked arrows starred,
Silently we went round and round
The slippery asphalte yard;
Silently we went round and round,
And no man spoke a word.
Silently we went round and round,
And through each hollow mind
The Memory of dreadful things
Rushed like a dreadful wind,
And Horror stalked before each man,
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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 Dracula by Bram Stoker: the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkeyland.
If it be so, then was he no common man, for in that time, and for
centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning,
as well as the bravest of the sons of the `land beyond the forest.'
That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave,
and are even now arrayed against us. The Draculas were, says Arminius,
a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were
held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One.
They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains
over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar
as his due. In the records are such words as `stregoica' witch,
Dracula |
