| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: transferred the whole thing, unopened, from my pocket to a drawer
which I double-locked would have amounted, for an initiated
observer, to some such pledge.
CHAPTER XII
Mrs. Saltram left me drawing my breath more quickly and indeed
almost in pain--as if I had just perilously grazed the loss of
something precious. I didn't quite know what it was--it had a
shocking resemblance to my honour. The emotion was the livelier
surely in that my pulses even yet vibrated to the pleasure with
which, the night before, I had rallied to the rare analyst, the
great intellectual adventurer and pathfinder. What had dropped
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: insects hummed from morn till eve; and when the sun went down,
tree-toads came out to snore and croak till dawn. There was more
life round that one tree than in a whole square mile of English
soil.
And Amyas, as he lounged among the branches, felt at moments as if
he would be content to stay there forever, and feed his eyes and
ears with all its wonders--and then started sighing from his dream,
as he recollected that a few days must bring the foe upon them, and
force him to decide upon some scheme at which the bravest heart
might falter without shame. So there he sat (for he often took the
scout's place himself), looking out over the fantastic tropic
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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 Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: The house, half-buried in the snow, looked the very abode
of peace, and I ran through all the rooms, eager to take possession
of them again, and feeling as though I had been away for ever.
When I got to the library I came to a standstill,--ah, the dear room,
what happy times I have spent in it rummaging amongst the books,
making plans for my garden, building castles in the air, writing,
dreaming, doing nothing! There was a big peat fire blazing half up
the chimney, and the old housekeeper had put pots of flowers about,
and on the writingtable was a great bunch of violets scenting the room.
"Oh, how good it is to be home again!" I sighed in my satisfaction.
The babies clung about my knees, looking up at me with eyes full of love.
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: that, as they said, was none of their business; that if the Czar
expected to convert his Siberian, Tonguse, or Tartar subjects, it
should be done by sending clergymen among them, not soldiers; and
they added, with more sincerity than I expected, that it was not so
much the concern of their monarch to make the people Christians as
to make them subjects.
From this river to the Oby we crossed a wild uncultivated country,
barren of people and good management, otherwise it is in itself a
pleasant, fruitful, and agreeable country. What inhabitants we
found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent among them from
Russia; for this is the country - I mean on both sides the river
Robinson Crusoe |
