| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: straight from the shoulder. Thornton was sent spinning, and saved
himself from falling only by clutching the rail of the bar.
Those who were looking on heard what was neither bark nor yelp,
but a something which is best described as a roar, and they saw
Buck's body rise up in the air as he left the floor for Burton's
throat. The man saved his life by instinctively throwing out his
arm, but was hurled backward to the floor with Buck on top of him.
Buck loosed his teeth from the flesh of the arm and drove in again
for the throat. This time the man succeeded only in partly
blocking, and his throat was torn open. Then the crowd was upon
Buck, and he was driven off; but while a surgeon checked the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: judged about forty years of age. But it was his face which chiefly
caught my eye, for at that moment there was something terrible
about it. It was long, thin, and deeply carved; the eyes were
large, and gleamed like gold in sunlight; the mouth was small and
well shaped, but it wore a devilish and cruel sneer; the forehead
lofty, indicating a man of mind, and marked with a slight scar.
For the rest the cavalier was dark and southern-looking, his
curling hair, like my own, was black, and he wore a peaked
chestnut-coloured beard.
By the time that I had finished these observations my feet had
brought me almost to the stranger's side, and for the first time he
Montezuma's Daughter |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: know how men babble away each other's characters in London, you
may be sure any buried scandal or hidden skeleton would have
been brought to light in such a case as this; but nothing of the
sort has taken place. As for the theory of mania, that is very
well, of course, for the coroner's jury, but everybody knows
that it's all nonsense. Suicidal mania is not small-pox."
Austin relapsed into gloomy silence. Villiers sat
silent, also, watching his friend. The expression of
indecision still fleeted across his face; he seemed as if
weighing his thoughts in the balance, and the considerations he
was resolving left him still silent. Austin tried to shake off
The Great God Pan |
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 Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: The vault was hid with plants and bushes hoar,
The wizard stooping in thereat to gone,
The thorns aside and scratching brambles bore,
His right hand sought the passage through the cleft,
And for his guide he gave the prince his left:
XXX
"What," quoth the Soldan, "by what privy mine,
What hidden vault behoves it me to creep?
This sword can find a better way than thine,
Although our foes the passage guard and keep."
"Let not," quoth he, "thy princely foot repine
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