| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: Dr. Hall looked bewildered.
"I don't understand. Is the young lady not with her aunt, after
all?"
Tuppence shook her head. She was about to speak when a warning
glance from Sir James made her hold her tongue. The lawyer rose.
"I'm much obliged to you, Hall. We're very grateful for all
you've told us. I'm afraid we're now in the position of having to
track Miss Vandemeyer anew. What about the nurse who accompanied
her; I suppose you don't know where she is?"
The doctor shook his head.
"We've not heard from her, as it happens. I understood she was
Secret Adversary |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: Than noise of many waters is
Or great sea-billows are.'
The thunder at the wall when it first struck - the rush along ever
growing higher - the great jet of snow-white spray some forty feet
above you - and the 'noise of many waters,' the roar, the hiss, the
'shrieking' among the shingle as it fell head over heels at your
feet. I watched if it threw the big stones at the wall; but it
never moved them.
MONDAY. - The end of the work displays gaps, cairns of ten ton
blocks, stones torn from their places and turned right round. The
damage above water is comparatively little: what there may be
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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 Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: circulation of the bottle; cards and billiards, for those who
preferred such amusements, were in readiness; but the exercise of
the morning required early hours, and not long after eleven
o'clock the guests began to retire to their several apartments.
The young lord himself conducted his friend, General Browne, to
the chamber destined for him, which answered the description he
had given of it, being comfortable, but old-fashioned, The bed
was of the massive form used in the end of the seventeenth
century, and the curtains of faded silk, heavily trimmed with
tarnished gold. But then the sheets, pillows, and blankets
looked delightful to the campaigner, when he thought of his
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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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: reputation, he had, nevertheless, that sort of chivalrous honor which
excuses, in the army, the worst excesses. In a word, he would have
been, at an earlier period, an admirable pirate. A few days before his
death he distinguished himself by a daring action which the marechal
wished to reward. Bianchi refused rank, pension, and additional
decoration, asking, for sole recompense, the favor of being the first
to mount the breach at the assault on Tarragona. The marechal granted
the request and then forgot his promise; but Bianchi forced him to
remember Bianchi. The enraged hero was the first to plant our flag on
the wall, where he was shot by a monk.
This historical digression was necessary, in order to explain how it
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