| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: may be exhausted after the laying of the great spiral; and to
repeat the same expenditure immediately is out of the question. I
want a case wherein there could be no appeal to any such
exhaustion. I obtain it, thanks to my assiduity.
While I am watching the rolling of the spiral, a head of game
rushes fun tilt into the unfinished snare. The Epeira interrupts
her work, hurries to the giddy-pate, swathes him and takes her fill
of him where he lies. During the struggle, a section of the web
has torn under the weaver's very eyes. A great gap endangers the
satisfactory working of the net. What will the spider do in the
presence of this grievous rent?
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: often that there were moments when he wished he might be sure, so
straight did their prospect stretch away of growing old together in
their rites. She was younger than he, but she looked as if her
Dead were at least as numerous as his candles. She had no colour,
no sound, no fault, and another of the things about which he had
made up his mind was that she had no fortune. Always black-robed,
she must have had a succession of sorrows. People weren't poor,
after all, whom so many losses could overtake; they were positively
rich when they had had so much to give up. But the air of this
devoted and indifferent woman, who always made, in any attitude, a
beautiful accidental line, conveyed somehow to Stransom that she
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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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: who had the ramrod. "Stop!" he said; "we will have a ball this time.
Let us put the range of the piece to the test."
"A good idea!" replied the major. "Corporal, you hear the orders."
In quick time an artillery-wagon was on the spot, and the men
lifted out a full-sized shot, weighing 200 lbs., which,
under ordinary circumstances, the cannon would carry about four miles.
It was proposed, by means of telescopes, to note the place
where the ball first touched the water, and thus to obtain
an approximation sufficiently accurate as to the true range.
Having been duly charged with powder and ball, the gun was raised to an angle
of something under 45 degrees, so as to allow proper development to the curve
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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 Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: Are you a match for the devil, and no match for a man?"
"My warfare," said the friar, "is not of this world.
I am militant not against man, but the devil, who goes about
seeking what he may devour."
"Oh! does he so?" said the baron: "then I take it that makes you look for him
so often in my buttery. Will you cast out the devil whose name is Legion,
when you cannot cast out the imp whose name is Love?"
"Marriages," said the friar, "are made in heaven. Love is God's work,
and therewith I meddle not."
"God's work, indeed!" said the baron, "when the ceremony was
cut short in the church. Could men have put them asunder,
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