| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo: wagons, the low muttered curses of the drivers, the shrieking and
roaring of the animals, as the circus train moved up the distant
hill. "The show has got to go on," he repeated as he crossed to
his study table and seated himself for work in the dim light of
the old-fashioned lamp. He put out one hand to draw the sheets
of his interrupted sermon toward him, but instead it fell upon a
small sailor hat. He twisted the hat absently in his fingers,
not yet realising the new order of things that was coming into
his life. Mandy tiptoed softly down the stairs. She placed one
pudgy forefinger on her lips, and rolled her large eyes skyward.
"Dat sure am an angel chile straight from Hebben," she whispered.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: to look in that bed. I gazed upon my other self for a while before drawing
across carefully the two green serge curtains which ran on a brass rod.
I thought for a moment of pinning them together for greater safety,
but I sat down on the couch, and once there I felt unwilling to rise
and hunt for a pin. I would do it in a moment. I was extremely tired,
in a peculiarly intimate way, by the strain of stealthiness,
by the effort of whispering and the general secrecy of this excitement.
It was three o'clock by now and I had been on my feet since nine,
but I was not sleepy; I could not have gone to sleep. I sat there,
fagged out, looking at the curtains, trying to clear my mind of the confused
sensation of being in two places at once, and greatly bothered by an
The Secret Sharer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: humour, that pleasant, broad, red, thoughtless (patting his cheek)--ah!
it's a bold face.
MRS. HARDCASTLE. Pretty innocence!
TONY. I'm sure I always loved cousin Con.'s hazle eyes, and her
pretty long fingers, that she twists this way and that over the
haspicholls, like a parcel of bobbins.
MRS. HARDCASTLE. Ah! he would charm the bird from the tree. I was
never so happy before. My boy takes after his father, poor Mr.
Lumpkin, exactly. The jewels, my dear Con., shall be yours
incontinently. You shall have them. Isn't he a sweet boy, my dear?
You shall be married to-morrow, and we'll put off the rest of his
She Stoops to Conquer |
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 Sportsman by Xenophon: hand forward and with the right behind; the left is to steady it, and
the right to give it impulse; and so the feet,[27] the left advanced
in correspondence with the left arm, and right with right. As he
advances, he will make a lunge forward with the boar-spear,[27]
planting his legs apart not much wider than in wrestling,[28] and
keeping his left side turned towards his left hand; and then, with his
eye fixed steadily on the beast's eye, he will note every turn and
movement of the creature's head. As he brings down the boar-spear to
the thrust, he must take good heed the animal does not knock it out of
his hands by a side movement of the head;[29] for if so he will follow
up the impetus of that rude knock. In case of that misfortune, the
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