| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: thirty miles away. All very nice."
"Sweet of them." I agreed.
"Isn't it! Only, three days ago Betty gets a wire to say her
mother's ill, and she has to bolt for the night train to Paris."
"Yes. So that uncle dear mustn't come to Savavic at any price.
If he does, Betty's absence becomes apparent, and the good old
'impossible position' arises at once. Consequently, I send a
nice letter to the one hotel at Laipnik 'to await arrival,'
saying the road's so bad and hard to find that I'll come over to
them instead of their coming here."
"Much as you would have loved them to see Savavic."
The Brother of Daphne |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: my chain. It was pitifully simple. A child might have
picked it, and a moment later I was free. The Mahars
were now evidently completing their work at the table.
One already turned away and was examining other victims,
evidently with the intention of selecting the next subject.
Those at the table had their backs toward me. But for the
creature walking toward us I might have escaped that moment.
Slowly the thing approached me, when its attention was
attracted by a huge slave chained a few yards to my right.
Here the reptile stopped and commenced to go over the poor
devil carefully, and as it did so its back turned toward me
At the Earth's Core |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: him that it was his cousin, Henriette Loches.
He could not keep his emotion from revealing itself in his face.
"It doesn't please you?" asked his mother, with a tone
disappointment.
"Why no, mother," he answered. "It's not that. It just
surprises me."
"But why?" asked the mother. "Henriette is a lovely girl and a
good girl."
"Yes, I know," said George; "but then she is my cousin, and--"
He blushed a little with embarrassment. "I had never thought of
her in that way."
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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 A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: monster, and it was at him that all the children had been laughing,
and the little Princess who he had thought loved him - she too had
been merely mocking at his ugliness, and making merry over his
twisted limbs. Why had they not left him in the forest, where
there was no mirror to tell him how loathsome he was? Why had his
father not killed him, rather than sell him to his shame? The hot
tears poured down his cheeks, and he tore the white rose to pieces.
The sprawling monster did the same, and scattered the faint petals
in the air. It grovelled on the ground, and, when he looked at it,
it watched him with a face drawn with pain. He crept away, lest he
should see it, and covered his eyes with his hands. He crawled,
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