| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: with many examples of the prophetic faculty and the gift of second
sight, proofs of which are frequently given by alienated minds, and
which may also be found, so travellers say, among certain tribes of
savages.
As the colonel had calculated, Stephanie crossed the fictitious plain
of the Beresina at nine o'clock in the morning, when she was awakened
by a cannon shot not a hundred yards from the spot where the
experiment was to be tried. This was a signal. Hundreds of peasants
made a frightful clamor like that on the shore of the river that
memorable night, when twenty thousand stragglers were doomed to death
or slavery by their own folly.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations. And, don't you see,
the terror of the position was not in being knocked on the head--
though I had a very lively sense of that danger, too--but in this,
that I had to deal with a being to whom I could not appeal in
the name of anything high or low. I had, even like the niggers,
to invoke him--himself--his own exalted and incredible degradation.
There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it.
He had kicked himself loose of the earth. Confound the man!
he had kicked the very earth to pieces. He was alone,
and I before him did not know whether I stood on the ground
or floated in the air. I've been telling you what we said--
Heart of Darkness |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: danger may be, I know not, and cannot guess. It will doubtless be
some ordinary circumstance; but none the less dangerous on that
account. Here we are at the gate. Now, be careful in all matters,
however small. To keep your head is half the battle."
There were a number of men in livery in the hall when they arrived.
The doors of the drawing-room were thrown open, and Lady Arabella
came forth and offered them cordial welcome. This having been got
over, Lady Arabella led them into another room where tea was served.
Adam was acutely watchful and suspicious of everything, and saw on
the far side of this room a panelled iron door of the same colour
and configuration as the outer door of the room where was the well-
Lair of the White Worm |
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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: I was that he could not be present to marry us and give us his blessing.
This letter I gave to a trader who was trekking to the bay on the
following morning, begging him to forward it by the first opportunity.
That duty done, I saw about the horses which I was taking into Zululand,
three of them, two for myself and one for Hans, who accompanied me as
after-rider. Also the saddlery, saddle-bags, guns and ammunition must
be overhauled, all of which took some time.
"You are going to spend a strange wittebroodsweek [white-bread-week, or,
in other words, honeymoon], baas," said Hans, squinting at me with his
little eyes, as he brayed away at a buckskin which was to serve as a
saddle-cloth. "Now, if _I_ was to be married to-morrow, I should stop
Marie |
