| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: beyond of a green, open, and irregular country rising towards the
Pentland Hills. The face of one of these summits (say two leagues
from where we stood) is marked with a procession of white scars.
And to this she directed my attention.
'You see these marks?' she said. 'We call them the Seven Sisters.
Follow a little lower with your eye, and you will see a fold of the
hill, the tops of some trees, and a tail of smoke out of the midst
of them. That is Swanston Cottage, where my brother and I are
living with my aunt. If it gives you pleasure to see it, I am
glad. We, too, can see the castle from a corner in the garden, and
we go there in the morning often - do we not, Ronald? - and we
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: not until Otto had taken the pen and signed that the truth flashed
upon him fully. Then, indeed, he was beside himself.
'His Highness!' he cried, 'His Highness!' and repeated the
exclamation till his mind had grappled fairly with the facts. Then
he turned to the witnesses. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'you dwell in a
country highly favoured by God; for of all generous gentlemen, I
will say it on my conscience, this one is the king. I am an old
man, and I have seen good and bad, and the year of the great famine;
but a more excellent gentleman, no, never.'
'We know that,' cried the landlord, 'we know that well in Grunewald.
If we saw more of his Highness we should be the better pleased.'
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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 The Message by Honore de Balzac: in vain--she could not utter a sound. She bent her head, and I
withdrew. In spite of the painful agitation, which I had felt to
the full as youth can feel, I fell asleep, tired out with my
forced march.
It was late in the night when I was awakened by the grating sound
of curtain rings drawn sharply over the metal rods. There sat the
Countess at the foot of my bed. The light from a lamp set on my
table fell full upon her face.
"Is it really true, monsieur, quite true?" she asked. "I do not
know how I can live after that awful blow which struck me down a
little while since; but just now I feel calm. I want to know
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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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: about the decks, and you will find, if a landsman, enough to occupy
you for a week to come. Nay, even if it be too calm for trawling,
condescend to go out in a dingy, and help to haul some honest
fellow's deep-sea lines and lobster-pots, and you will find more
and stranger things about them than even fish or lobsters: though
they, to him who has eyes to see, are strange enough.
I speak from experience; for it was not so very long ago that, in
the north of Devon, I found sermons, not indeed in stones, but in a
creature reputed among the most worthless of sea-vermin. I had
been lounging about all the morning on the little pier, waiting,
with the rest of the village, for a trawling breeze which would not
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