| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: "Ah! it is from a--" said Tchartkoff, but did not finish his sentence:
he heard a crack. It seems that the officer had pressed too hard on
the frame of the portrait, thanks to the weight of his constable's
hands. The small boards at the side caved in, one fell on the floor,
and with it fell, with a heavy crash, a roll of blue paper. The
inscription caught Tchartkoff's eye--"1000 ducats." Like a madman, he
sprang to pick it up, grasped the roll, and gripped it convulsively in
his hand, which sank with the weight.
"Wasn't there a sound of money?" inquired the officer, hearing the
noise of something falling on the floor, and not catching sight of it,
owing to the rapidity with which Tchartkoff had hastened to pick it
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: inwardly accused himself of tyranny. It was fortunate for both that in
the very beginning of their love they should thus come to know the
diapason of their hearts; they avoided henceforth a thousand shocks
which might have wounded them.
Etienne, impatient to entrench himself behind an occupation, led
Gabrielle to a table before the little window at which he himself had
suffered so long, and where he was henceforth to admire a flower more
dainty than all he had hitherto studied. Then he opened a book over
which they bent their heads till their hair touched and mingled.
These two beings, so strong in heart, so weak in body, but embellished
by all the graces of suffering, were a touching sight. Gabrielle was
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: Yet all of this might be nothing more than a mixture of keen
observation, clever spying, trickery and mesmerism. I could not
say which it was, nor can I with certainty to this hour.
Such were the thoughts that passed through my mind as I walked
back from the Vale of Bones by the side of the big-paunched Goza,
whom I caught eyeing me from time to time as a curious crow eyes
any object that has attracted his attention.
"Goza," I said at last, "do the Zulus really mean to fight the
English?"
He turned and pointed to a spot where the hills ran down into the
great plain. Here two regiments were manoeuvring. One of these
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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 Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: thrown back against the cushions of the deck-chair at his side.
There was something harsh and bracing in her blunt primitive
build, in the projection of the black eyebrows that nearly met
over her thick straight nose, and the faint barely visible black
down on her upper lip. Some miracle of will-power, combined
with all the artifices that wealth can buy, had turned the fat
sallow girl he remembered into this commanding young woman,
almost handsome at times indisputably handsome--in her big
authoritative way. Watching the arrogant lines of her profile
against the blue sea, he remembered, with a thrill that was
sweet to his vanity, how twice--under the dome of the Scalzi and
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