| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: The girl's sob caught in her breast, stilled with the awe of that
heavenly music. So for an instant she waited before it was borne
in on her that the voice was a human one, and that the heaven
from which it descended was the hilltop above her.
A wild laugh, followed by an oath, cut the dying echoes of the
song. She could hear the swish of a quirt falling again and
again, and the sound of trampling hoofs thudding on the hard,
sun-cracked ground. Startled, she sprang to her feet, and saw
silhouetted against the skyline a horse and his rider fighting
for mastery.
The battle was superb while it lasted. The horse had been a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: as brave as steel, sprang from his bed at this alarm, and had
laid hand upon his sword, when he was prevented from drawing it
by a voice which said, "Be not too rash with your rapier, Master
Tressilian. It is I, your host, Giles Gosling."
At the same time, unshrouding the dark lantern, which had
hitherto only emitted an indistinct glimmer, the goodly aspect
and figure of the landlord of the Black Bear was visibly
presented to his astonished guest.
"What mummery is this, mine host?" said Tressilian. "Have you
supped as jollily as last night, and so mistaken your chamber?
or is midnight a time for masquerading it in your guest's
Kenilworth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: seems so inevitably the conviction to which all right-thinking
men must ultimately come, that I feel almost like a looker-on at
a game of blind-man's bluff as I watch the discussion of
synthetic political ideas. The blind man thrusts his seeking
hands into the oddest corners, he clutches at chairs and
curtains, but at last he must surely find and hold and feel over
and guess the name of the plainly visible quarry.
Some of the French and Italian people I talked to said they were
fighting for "Civilisation." That is one name for the kingdom of
God, and I have heard English people use it too. But much of the
contemporary thought of England stills wanders with its back to
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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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: Charlie. " Surely one can speak friendly to one's friends. How
was I to know the door was open--"
Hoopdriver began to suspect that his antagonist was, if possible,
more seriously alarmed at the prospect of violence than himself,
and his spirits rose again. These chaps ought to have a thorough
lesson. "Of COURSE you knew the door was open," he retorted
indignantly. "Of COURSE you thought we should hear what you said.
Don't go telling lies about it. It's no good your saying things
like that. You've had your fun, and you meant to have your fun.
And I mean to make an example of you, Sir."
"Ginger beer," said the little man with the beard, in a
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