| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: your gude-will to thank ye for: I suld e'en hae set the guse, and
the wild deukes, adn the runlet of sack to balance that account.
Gude-will, man, is a geizen'd tub, that hauds in nae liquor; but
gude deed's like the cask, tight, round, and sound, that will
haud liquor for the king."
"Have ye no heard of our letter," said the mother-in-law,
"making our John [Gibbie] the Queen's cooper for certain? and
scarce a chield that had ever hammered gird upon tub but was
applying for it?"
"Have I heard!!!" said Caleb, who now found how the wind set,
with an accent of exceeding contempt, at the doubt
The Bride of Lammermoor |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: Prothero made a noise of sympathetic assent.
"In a country where equestrianism is assertion I suppose one must be
equestrian. . . ."
That night some malignant spirit kept Benham awake, and great
American trotters with vast wide-striding feet and long yellow
teeth, uncontrollable, hard-mouthed American trotters, pounded over
his angry soul.
"Prothero," he said in hall next day, "we are going to drive to-
morrow."
Next day, so soon as they had lunched, he led the way towards
Maltby's, in Crosshampton Lane. Something in his bearing put a
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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 Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: east. Beyond thirty, and separated from my ship, my
authority ceased. I held leadership, if I was to hold it at
all, by virtue of personal qualifications only, but I did
not doubt my ability to remain the director of our destinies
in so far as they were amenable to human agencies. I have
always led. While my brain and brawn remain unimpaired I
shall continue always to lead. Following is an art which
Turcks do not easily learn.
It was not until the third day that we raised land, dead
ahead, which I took, from my map, to be the isles of Scilly.
But such a gale was blowing that I did not dare attempt to
Lost Continent |
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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: mentioning the subject at all until she came to me last evening
with your letter in her hand,--when I say this, you will understand
that I have acted towards you with the respect and sympathy which
I profoundly feel. Helmine fully shares this feeling, and her poor
heart is too painfully moved to allow her to reply. Do I not say,
in saying this, what her reply must be? But, though her heart
cannot respond to your love, she hopes you will always believe her
a friend to whom your proffered devotion was an honor, and will
be--if you will subdue it to her deserts--a grateful thing to
remember. We shall remain in Warsaw a fortnight longer, as I think
yourself will agree that it is better we should not
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