| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: "You are the son of the Black One who is dead, yea, sprung from the
blood of Chaka and of Baleka, my sister."
"I still have some kinship with you then, Mopo, and that I am glad of.
Wow! who would have guessed that I was the son of the Silwana, of that
hyena man? Perhaps it is for this reason that, like Galazi, I love the
company of the wolves, though no love grows in my heart for my father
or any of his house."
"You have little cause to love him, Umslopogaas, for he murdered your
mother, Baleka, and would have slain you also. But you are the son of
Chaka and of no other man."
"Well, his eyes must be keen indeed, my uncle, who can pick his own
Nada the Lily |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: Of course, that sally silenced us at the time. But I remembered
the episode, and at this juncture, pushed for something
noncommittal to say, I inquired with polite surprise:
"You have your married daughter living with you, Mr. Jacobus?"
He moved his big hand from right to left quietly. No! That was
another of his girls, he stated, ponderously and under his breath
as usual. She . . . He seemed in a pause to be ransacking his mind
for some kind of descriptive phrase. But my hopes were
disappointed. He merely produced his stereotyped definition.
"She's a very different sort of person."
"Indeed. . . . And by the by, Jacobus, I called on your brother the
'Twixt Land & Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: and hysterics which they called their spiritual life.
And the question of Gorringe and Alice, that too
stood precisely where he wanted it. Even in his
own thoughts, he preferred to pursue it no further.
Between them somewhere an offence of concealment,
it might be of conspiracy, had been committed against him.
It was no business of his to say more, or to think more.
He rested his case simply on the fact, which could not
be denied, and which he was not in the least interested
to have explained, one way or the other. The recollection
of Gorringe's obvious disturbance of mind was especially
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
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 Where There's A Will by Mary Roberts Rinehart: like to be agitated."
She curled up on the cot with that and went sound asleep. The
rest of us had coffee and talked, but there wasn't anything to
do. As Mr. Sam said, Mr. Pierce didn't want to stay, anyhow, and
as likely as not if we went to him in a body and told him he must
come to the shelter-house for instructions, and be suave and
gentle when he was called down by the guests about the steam-
pipes making a racket, he'd probably prefer to go down to the
village and take Doctor Barnes' place washing dishes at the
station. That wouldn't call for any particular mildness.
But he settled it by appearing himself. He came across the snow
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