| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: table, where his photograph, well-dressed, handsome, self-
sufficient--the portrait of a man of the world, confident of
his ability to deal adequately with the most delicate
situations--offered its huge fatuity to his gaze. He turned
back to her. "It's rather hard on Owen, isn't it, that you
should have waited until now to tell him?"
She reflected a moment before answering. "I told him as
soon as I knew."
"Knew that you couldn't marry him?"
"Knew that I could never live here with him." She looked
about the room, as though the very walls must speak for her.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: of beauty, might have been a cultured European.
"Prove, then, that you really wish to leave this man's service.
Tell me what killed Strozza and the Chinaman," I said.
She shrugged her shoulders.
"I do not know that. But if you will carry me off"--she clutched me
nervously--"so that I am helpless, lock me up so that I cannot escape,
beat me, if you like, I will tell you all I do know. While he is
my master I will never betray him. Tear me from him--by force,
do you understand, BY FORCE, and my lips will be sealed no longer.
Ah! but you do not understand, with your `proper authorities'--
your police. Police! Ah, I have said enough."
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: dim thoughts were often searching for far away lands where, as God
says, the little hills sing together in the morning. Under the
trees of her dream-gardens there had always walked a lover.
Chapter VI
Pete took note of Maggie.
"Say, Mag, I'm stuck on yer shape. It's outa sight," he said,
parenthetically, with an affable grin.
As he became aware that she was listening closely, he grew
still more eloquent in his descriptions of various happenings in
his career. It appeared that he was invincible in fights.
"Why," he said, referring to a man with whom he had had a
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: "A French colony, I believe," interposed Major Oliphant, half shutting
his eyes with an expression of supreme indifference.
Servadac was on the point of making some cutting retort,
but Count Timascheff, without allowing the interruption to be noticed,
calmly continued his narrative:
"It was near the mouth of the Shelif that a portion of Africa, on that
eventful night, was transformed into an island which alone survived;
the rest of the vast continent disappeared as completely as if it
had never been."
The announcement seemed by no means startling to the phlegmatic colonel.
"Indeed!" was all he said.
|
