| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: very greatly.
By the energy and thought of Asano he was able to
view this place from a little screened gallery reserved
for the attendants of the tables. The building was
pervaded by a distant muffled hooting, piping and
bawling, of which he did not at first understand the
import, but which recalled a certain mysterious
leathery voice he had heard after the resumption of the
lights on the night of his solitary wandering.
He had grown accustomed now to vastness and
great numbers of people, nevertheless this spectacle
When the Sleeper Wakes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: the agent.
"What you are declaiming there is all very clever," he said,
carelessly, "but the thing that proves to me our defeat is the fact
that you are not on the terms with Mademoiselle Thuillier you would
have us believe you are. She is slipping through your fingers; and I
don't think that marriage is anything like as certain as Dutocq and I
have been fancying it was."
"Well, no doubt," said la Peyrade, "there are still some touches to be
given to our sketch, but I believe it is well under way."
"And I think, on the contrary, that you have lost ground; and the
reason is simple: you have done those people an immense service; and
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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 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: No explanations were asked, no reproaches made. Mammy understood
and was silent. In Mammy, Scarlett had found a realist more
uncompromising than herself. The mottled wise old eyes saw deeply,
saw clearly, with the directness of the savage and the child,
undeterred by conscience when danger threatened her pet. Scarlett
was her baby and what her baby wanted, even though it belonged to
another, Mammy was willing to help her obtain. The rights of
Suellen and Frank Kennedy did not even enter her mind, save to
cause a grim inward chuckle. Scarlett was in trouble and doing the
best she could, and Scarlett was Miss Ellen's child. Mammy rallied
to her with never a moment's hesitation.
Gone With the Wind |
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 Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: confusion very plainly; for, first, I saw him knit his brows at me
like one who has conceived a doubt; next, he tried me in German,
supposing perhaps that I was unfamiliar with the English tongue;
and finally, in despair, he rose and left me. I felt chagrined;
but my fatigue was too crushing for delay, and, stretching myself
as far as that was possible upon the bench, I was received at once
into a dreamless stupor.
The little German gentleman was only going a little way into the
suburbs after a DINER FIN, and was bent on entertainment while the
journey lasted. Having failed with me, he pitched next upon
another emigrant, who had come through from Canada, and was not one
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