| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: her hand, he left the room with quick resolute strides, without
looking at Natasha.
Next day Rostov saw Denisov off. He not wish to stay another day
in Moscow. All Denisov's Moscow friends gave him a farewell
entertainment at the gypsies', with the result that he had no
recollection of how he was put in the sleigh or of the first three
stages of his journey.
After Denisov's departure, Rostov spent another fortnight in Moscow,
without going out of the house, waiting for the money his father could
not at once raise, and he spent most of his time in the girls' room.
Sonya was more tender and devoted to him than ever. It was as if she
War and Peace |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: from Spain to South America with a vast treasure of "doubloons"
and "pieces of eight," I suppose, for they certainly
sound weird and piraty.
The writer had been one of the crew, and the letter was to
his son, who was, at the very time the letter was written,
master of a Spanish merchantman.
Many years had elapsed since the events the letter narrated
had transpired, and the old man had become a respected citizen
of an obscure Spanish town, but the love of gold was still
so strong upon him that he risked all to acquaint his son with
the means of attaining fabulous wealth for them both.
Tarzan of the Apes |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: rock, that winds round Jakko. The deodars stood thick above them,
with the sunlight filtering through; a thousand feet below lay the
little square fields, yellow and green, of the King of Koti. The
purple-brown Himalayas shouldered the eye out to the horizon, and
there the Snows lifted themselves, hardly more palpable than the
drifted clouds, except for a gleam of ice in their whiteness. A low
stone wall ran along the verge of the precipice, and, looking down,
they saw tangled patches of the white wild rose of the Himalayas,
waving and drooping over the abyss.
'I am afraid,' said Innes, 'you are not even upon the fringe of the
situation.'
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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 Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: developing theories along with a fit spirit even as of yore. Yet I
now draw near to the Middle Ages; nearly three years ago, that
fatal Thirty struck; and yet the great work is not yet done - not
yet even conceived. But so, as one goes on, the wood seems to
thicken, the footpath to narrow, and the House Beautiful on the
hill's summit to draw further and further away. We learn, indeed,
to use our means; but only to learn, along with it, the paralysing
knowledge that these means are only applicable to two or three poor
commonplace motives. Eight years ago, if I could have slung ink as
I can now, I should have thought myself well on the road after
Shakespeare; and now - I find I have only got a pair of walking-
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