| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: lad placed some good-sized pieces of wood, which they had fastened together
with dry creepers. A raft was thus formed, on which they stacked all they
had collected, sufficient, indeed, to have loaded at least twenty men. In
an hour the work was finished, and the raft moored to the bank, awaited the
turning of the tide.
There were still several hours to be occupied, and with one consent
Pencroft and Herbert resolved to gain the upper plateau, so as to have a
more extended view of the surrounding country.
Exactly two hundred feet behind the angle formed by the river, the wall,
terminated by a fall of rocks, died away in a gentle slope to the edge of
the forest. It was a natural staircase. Herbert and the sailor began their
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: counted their losses and found them equal to their gains; but the next
day they discovered that during the night the Phocians and the rest of
them had made off to their several homes, whereupon they fell to
pluming themselves highly on their achievement. But presently
Pausanias appeared at the head of the Lacedaemonian army, and once
more their dangers seemed to thicken round them. Deep, we are told,
was the silence and abasement which reigned in their host. It was not
until the third day, when the Athenians arrived[23] and were duely
drawn up beside them, whilst Pausanias neither attacked nor offered
battle, that at length the confidence of the Thebans took a larger
range. Pausanias, on his side, having summoned his generals 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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: rows, twelve duchesses or countesses, wearing ermine surcoats,
bodices, robes, and circlets,--that is to say, the coronets of
duchesses and countesses. These were the Duchesses d'Estouteville,
Montpensier (elder and younger); the Princesses de la Roche-sur-
Yon; the Duchesses de Guise, de Nivernois, d'Aumale, de
Valentinois (Diane de Poitiers), Mademoiselle la batarde legitimee
de France (the title of the king's daughter, Diane, who was
Duchesse de Castro-Farnese and afterwards Duchesse de Montmorency-
Damville), Madame la Connetable, and Mademoiselle de Nemours;
without mentioning other demoiselles who were not seated. The four
presidents of the courts of justice, wearing their caps, several
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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 Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: have broken faith with you."
"Broken faith? As how?"
"So!" he said, and sighed. "My words were of so little account that
they have been, I see, forgotten. Yet, so that I remember them, that
is what chiefly matters. I promised then - or seemed to promise - that
I would make a widow of you, who had made a wife of you against your
will. It has not happened yet. Do not despair. This Monmouth quarrel
is not yet fought out. Hope on, my Ruth."
She looked at him with eyes wide open - lustrous eyes of sapphire in a
face of ivory. A faint smile parted her lips, the reflection of the
thought in her mind that had she, indeed, been eager for his death she
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