| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: "I don't quite know myself. I only know that she thanks God for
everything, for every misfortune, and thanks God too that her
husband died. And that's rather droll, as they didn't get on
together."
"Who's that? What a piteous face!" he asked, noticing a sick man
of medium height sitting on a bench, wearing a brown overcoat and
white trousers that fell in strange folds about his long,
fleshless legs. This man lifted his straw hat, showed his scanty
curly hair and high forehead, painfully reddened by the pressure
of the hat.
"That's Petrov, an artist," answered Kitty, blushing. "And that's
Anna Karenina |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: The head of the unfortunate German lay on the ground; his body was
still on the bed; all its blood had flowed out by the neck.
Seeing the eyes still open but fixed, seeing the blood which had
stained his sheets and even his hands, recognizing his own surgical
instrument beside him, Prosper Magnan fainted and fell into the pool
of Wahlenfer's blood. "It was," he said to me, "the punishment of my
thoughts." When he recovered consciousness he was in the public room,
seated on a chair, surrounded by French soldiers, and in presence of a
curious and observing crowd. He gazed stupidly at a Republican officer
engaged in taking the testimony of several witnesses, and in writing
down, no doubt, the "proces-verbal." He recognized the landlord, his
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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 Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: with which I might have entertained myself all day long." And then
he began to grow vexed with Kalamake.
"This man has the soul of a dog," thought he. "He can gather
dollars when he pleases on the beach, and he leaves me to pine for
a concertina! Let him beware: I am no child, I am as cunning as
he, and hold his secret." With that he spoke to his wife Lehua,
and complained of her father's manners.
"I would let my father be," said Lehua. "He is a dangerous man to
cross."
"I care that for him!" cried Keola; and snapped his fingers. "I
have him by the nose. I can make him do what I please." And he
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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 Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: his piratical career. He cruised around in the rivers and inlets
and sounds of North Carolina for a while, ruling the roost and
with never a one to say him nay, until there was no bearing with
such a pest any longer. So they sent a deputation up to the
Governor of Virginia asking if he would be pleased to help them
in their trouble.
There were two men-of-war lying at Kicquetan, in the James River,
at the time. To them the Governor of Virginia applies, and
plucky Lieutenant Maynard, of the Pearl, was sent to Ocracoke
Inlet to fight this pirate who ruled it down there so like the
cock of a walk. There he found Blackbeard waiting for him, and
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
