| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: moments in satisfaction at the assistant he had found by such
chance, then he turned and hastened down the stairs again.
"We're going to that house?" asked Amster when they were down in
the street. Muller nodded.
Without hesitation the two men made their way through a tangle of
dingy, uninteresting alleys, between modem tenements, until about
ten minutes later they stood before an old three-storied building,
which had a frontage of four windows on the street. "This is our
place," said the detective, looking up at the tall, handsome
gateway and the rococo carvings that ornamented the front of this
decaying dwelling. It was very evidently of a different age and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: wander beyond the Atlantic, to the ocean which has no shore.'
Then they blest the magic bough, and sailed southward along
the land. But ere they could pass Ierne, the land of mists
and storms, the wild wind came down, dark and roaring, and
caught the sail, and strained the ropes. And away they drove
twelve nights, on the wide wild western sea, through the
foam, and over the rollers, while they saw neither sun nor
stars. And they cried again, 'We shall perish, for we know
not where we are. We are lost in the dreary damp darkness,
and cannot tell north from south.'
But Lynceus the long-sighted called gaily from the bows,
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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 A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: of a shattered mast, with his whole body bend backward and covered
with sea-foam; or,--these were recollections of the engraved geography
--he was being devoured by savages, or captured in a forest by apes,
or dying on some lonely coast. She never mentioned her anxieties,
however.
Madame Aubain worried about her daughter.
The sisters thought that Virginia was affectionate but delicate. The
slightest emotion enervated her. She had to give up her piano lessons.
Her mother insisted upon regular letters from the convent. One
morning, when the postman failed to come, she grew impatient and began
to pace to and fro, from her chair to the window. It was really
A Simple Soul |
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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: little thing. She looked it, I must say. And this opinion was so
universal that the friend I have been telling you of remembered his
conversation with Davidson simply because of the statement about
Davidson's wife. He even wondered to me: 'Fancy Mrs. Davidson
making a fuss to that extent. She didn't seem to me the sort of
woman that would know how to make a fuss about anything.'
"I wondered, too - but not so much. That bumpy forehead - eh? I
had always suspected her of being silly. And I observed that
Davidson must have been vexed by this display of wifely anxiety.
"My friend said: 'No. He seemed rather touched and distressed.
There really was no one he could ask to relieve him; mainly because
Within the Tides |
