| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: Light, however, was thrown upon this when a frightened housemaid brought the
news that Gaffer Bedshaw had that very morning, not more than an hour back,
gone violently insane, and was strapped down at home, in the huntsman's lodge,
where he raved of a battle with a ferocious and gigantic beast that he had
encountered in the Tichlorne pasture. He claimed that the thing, whatever it
was, was invisible, that with his own eyes he had seen that it was invisible;
wherefore his tearful wife and daughters shook their heads, and wherefore he
but waxed the more violent, and the gardener and the coachman tightened the
straps by another hole.
Nor, while Paul Tichlorne was thus successfully mastering the problem of
invisibility, was Lloyd Inwood a whit behind. I went over in answer to a
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: fine things for you, and so bring credit on my own name of Joseph
Bridau."
"You took up my defence," said the count, hastily; "and I hope you
will give me the pleasure of dining with me, as well as my lively
friend Mistigris."
"Your Excellency doesn't know to what you expose yourself," said the
saucy rapin; "'facilis descensus victuali,' as we say at the Black
Hen."
"Bridau!" exclaimed the minister, struck by a sudden thought. "Are you
any relation to one of the most devoted toilers under the Empire, the
head of a bureau, who fell a victim to his zeal?"
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: Praed. [He comes in]. Glad to see you. [She proffers her hand
and takes his with a resolute and hearty grip. She is an
attractive specimen of the sensible, able, highly-educated young
middle-class Englishwoman. Age 22. Prompt, strong, confident,
self-possessed. Plain business-like dress, but not dowdy. She
wears a chatelaine at her belt, with a fountain pen and a paper
knife among its pendants].
PRAED. Very kind of you indeed, Miss Warren. [She shuts the gate
with a vigorous slam. He passes in to the middle of the garden,
exercising his fingers, which are slightly numbed by her
greeting]. Has your mother arrived?
|
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 Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: peep at you. Red-hot in summer, freezing in winter, is
that big, purple heather country of broken stone.
'Just when you think you are at the world's end, you
see a smoke from East to West as far as the eye can turn,
and then, under it, also as far as the eye can stretch,
houses and temples, shops and theatres, barracks and
granaries, trickling along like dice behind - always behind
- one long, low, rising and falling, and hiding and
showing line of towers. And that is the Wall!'
'Ah!' said the children, taking breath.
'You may well,' said Parnesius. 'Old men who have
|
