| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: out of the binnacle, and raising it to his face.
"An ugly business."
He had rather regular features; a good mouth; light eyes under
somewhat heavy, dark eyebrows; a smooth, square forehead; no growth
on his cheeks; a small, brown mustache, and a well-shaped, round chin.
His expression was concentrated, meditative, under the inspecting
light of the lamp I held up to his face; such as a man thinking
hard in solitude might wear. My sleeping suit was just right
for his size. A well-knit young fellow of twenty-five at most.
He caught his lower lip with the edge of white, even teeth.
"Yes," I said, replacing the lamp in the binnacle.
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Koran: and he plucked out his hand, and, behold, it was white to the
spectators!
He said to the chiefs around him, 'Verily, this is a knowing
sorcerer, he desires to turn you out of your land! what is it then
ye bid?'
They said, 'Give him and his brother some hope, and send into the
cities to collect and bring to thee every knowing sorcerer.'
And the sorcerers assembled at the appointed time on a stated day,
and it was said to the people, 'Are ye assembled? haply we may
follow the sorcerers if we gain the upper hand.'
And when the sorcerers came they said to Pharaoh, 'Shall we, verily,
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: small ship on the horizon, and to perceive her go about and head
for the SAINTE-MARIE. But our gratification did not very long
endure; for when she had laid to and lowered a boat, it was
immediately filled with disorderly fellows, who sang and shouted as
they pulled across to us, and swarmed in on our deck with bare
cutlasses, cursing loudly. Their leader was a horrible villain,
with his face blacked and his whiskers curled in ringlets; Teach,
his name; a most notorious pirate. He stamped about the deck,
raving and crying out that his name was Satan, and his ship was
called Hell. There was something about him like a wicked child or
a half-witted person, that daunted me beyond expression. I
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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 The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: V. THE BITTER LOVE-SONG
No, I shall not say why it is that I love you--
Why do you ask me, save for vanity?
Surely you would not have me, like a mirror,
Say 'yes,--your hair curls darkly back from the temples,
Your mouth has a humorous, tremulous, half-shy sweetness,
Your eyes are April grey. . . .with jonquils in them?'
No, if I tell at all, I shall tell in silence . . .
I'll say--my childhood broke through chords of music
--Or were they chords of sun?--wherein fell shadows,
Or silences; I rose through seas of sunlight;
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