| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: man, with black hair, and somewhat hard-featured. He looks
ill, and I don't think the air of Holland agrees with him."
Monk followed with the greatest attention the rapid,
heightened, and diffuse conversation of the fisherman, in a
language which was not his own, but which, as we have said,
he spoke with great facility. The fisherman on his part,
employed sometimes a French word, sometimes an English word,
and sometimes a word which appeared not to belong to any
language, but was, in truth, pure Gascon. Fortunately his
eyes spoke for him, and that so eloquently, that it was
possible to lose a word from his mouth, but not a single
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: Where no voice is, but with a little dust
Death fills right up the lying mouths of men.
GUIDO
Unhand me, knaves! I tell thee, my Lord Justice,
Thou mightst as well bid the untrammelled ocean,
The winter whirlwind, or the Alpine storm,
Not roar their will, as bid me hold my peace!
Ay! though ye put your knives into my throat,
Each grim and gaping wound shall find a tongue,
And cry against you.
LORD JUSTICE
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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 Father Sergius by Leo Tolstoy: He remembered his prayers at the commencement of his life at the
hermitage, when he prayed for purity, humility, and love, and how
it seemed to him then that God heard his prayers. He had
retained his purity and had chopped off his finger. And he
lifted the shrivelled stump of that finger to his lips and kissed
it. It seemed to him now that he had been humble then when he
had always seemed loathsome to himself on account of his
sinfulness; and when he remembered the tender feelings with which
he had then met an old man who was bringing a drunken soldier to
him to ask alms; and how he had received HER, it seemed to him
that he had then possessed love also. But now? And he asked
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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 Sportsman by Xenophon: [24] {en to plokano} (al. {plokamo}) = the plaited rope, which formed
the {stephane}. See Pollux, v. 32, ap. Schneid. and Lenz.
[25] Al. "so as to press into the foot, if the wooden ones yield."
[26] Or, "27 inches x 3."
To set the trap, dig a hole in the soil to a depth of fifteen
inches,[27] circular in shape, with a circumference at the top exactly
corresponding to the crown and narrowing towards the bottom. For the
rope and wooden clog likewise remove sufficient earth to let them both
be lightly buried. That done, place the foot-gin deep enough to be
just even with the surface of the soil,[28] and round the circle of
the crown the cord-noose. The cord itself and wooden clog must now be
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