| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: moment after, without any bravado, or apparent desire to
assume an attitude, she would propound some social axiom
which could have been gathered only in the bitter soil of
experience.
All these things came back to him as he sat beside her in
the theatre and watched her ingenuous absorption. It was on
"the story" that her mind was fixed, and in life also, he
suspected, it would always be "the story", rather than its
remoter imaginative issues, that would hold her. He did not
believe there were ever any echoes in her soul...
There was no question, however, that what she felt was felt
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: you're hintin' that you'd like to shunt me out of this job, it'd be
easy as wink.' So he made no trouble at all about leaving at the end of
next week, and apparently is willing to initiate a young fellow, Joe
Chambers, into as many mysteries of the craft as possible. I told him I
would give him a month's wages extra, when he left. He said he'd rather
I kept my money, as I'd no occasion to ease my conscience. I asked him
what he meant, and he said: 'You don't owe me nothing extra, Sir
Clifford, so don't pay me nothing extra. If you think you see my shirt
hanging out, just tell me.'
Well, there is the end of it for the time being. The woman has gone
away: we don't know where to: but she is liable to arrest if she shows
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The First Men In The Moon by H. G. Wells: almost all substances are opaque to some form or other of radiant energy.
Glass, for example, is transparent to light, but much less so to heat, so
that it is useful as a fire-screen; and alum is transparent to light, but
blocks heat completely. A solution of iodine in carbon bisulphide, on the
other hand, completely blocks light, but is quite transparent to heat. It
will hide a fire from you, but permit all its warmth to reach you. Metals
are not only opaque to light and heat, but also to electrical energy,
which passes through both iodine solution and glass almost as though they
were not interposed. And so on.
Now all known substances are "transparent" to gravitation. You can use
screens of various sorts to cut off the light or heat, or electrical
The First Men In The Moon |
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 The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: quieted down a bit now, for his father - he's Colonel Leining,
retired - made him get exchanged from the city to a small garrison
town. There's nothing much to do in Marburg, I dare say - well!
you are a merry sort, aren't you?" These last words, spoken in a
tone of surprise, were called forth by a sudden sharp whistle from
the detective, a whistle which went off into a few merry bars.
A sudden whistle like that from Muller's lips was something that
made the Imperial Police Force sit up and take notice, for it meant
that things were happening, and that the happenings were likely to
become exciting. It was a habit he could control only by the
severest effort of the will, an effort which he kept for occasions
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