| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: unexpectedly upon the guns in Painshill Park, which he
destroyed.
The St. George's Hill men, however, were better led or of
a better mettle. Hidden by a pine wood as they were, they
seem to have been quite unsuspected by the Martian nearest
to them. They laid their guns as deliberately as if they had
been on parade, and fired at about a thousand yards' range.
The shells flashed all round him, and he was seen to
advance a few paces, stagger, and go down. Everybody yelled
together, and the guns were reloaded in frantic haste. The
overthrown Martian set up a prolonged ululation, and imme-
War of the Worlds |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: if to pray, and wept with distress at the sight of human horrors that
his own pure soul was incapable of suspecting. As frightened as though
he had suddenly found himself at the edge of a precipice, he listened,
with fixed, moist eyes in which there was no expression, to the
revelations of his friend, who ended by saying: "I know the wrong I do
in abandoning your cause; but, my dear abbe, family duties must be
considered before those of friendship. Yield, as I do, to this storm,
and I will prove to you my gratitude. I am not talking of your worldly
interests, for those I take charge of. You shall be made free of all
such anxieties for the rest of your life. By means of Monsieur de
Bourbonne, who will know how to save appearances, I shall arrange
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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 The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: some traitor in the gang were in collusion for their own ends - and
that certainly did not lift the Adventurer to any higher plane, or
wash from him the stigma of thief.
She clenched her hands. It was all an attempt at argument without
the basis of a single logical premise. It was silly and childish!
Why hadn't the man been an ordinary, plain, common thief and
criminal - and looked like one? She would never have been attracted
to him then even through gratitude! Why should he have all the
graces and ear-marks of breeding? Why should he have all the
appearances of gentleman? It seemed a needlessly cruel and
additional blow that fate had dealt her, when already she was living
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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 The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: happy. His hack-work had given him the habit of application,
and now habit wore the glow of inspiration. His previous
literary ventures had been timid and tentative: if this one was
growing and strengthening on his hands, it must be because the
conditions were so different. He was at ease, he was secure, he
was satisfied; and he had also, for the first time since his
early youth, before his mother's death, the sense of having some
one to look after, some one who was his own particular care, and
to whom he was answerable for himself and his actions, as he had
never felt himself answerable to the hurried and indifferent
people among whom he had chosen to live.
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