| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: him of. For this was how he had died. Byrne was certain he had
heard the voice of the seaman, faintly distinct in his familiar
phrase, "Mr. Byrne! Look out, sir!" and again uttering words he
could not make out. But then the distance separating the living
from the dead is so great! Poor Tom had tried. Byrne ran to the
bed and attempted to lift up, to push off the horrible lid
smothering the body. It resisted his efforts, heavy as lead,
immovable like a tombstone. The rage of vengeance made him desist;
his head buzzed with chaotic thoughts of extermination, he turned
round the room as if he could find neither his weapons nor the way
out; and all the time he stammered awful menaces. . .
Within the Tides |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: who raised a wild shriek., but whether he received the threatened kiss
or not I was unable to see, as Bruno, who had by this time released
himself from his extinguisher, rushed headlong out of the room,
followed by Sylvie; and I was so fearful of being left alone among all
these crazy creatures that I hurried after them.
We must go to Father!" Sylvie panted, as they ran down the garden.
"I'm sure things are at their worst! I'll ask the Gardener to let us
out again."
"But we ca'n't walk all the way!" Bruno whimpered. "How I wiss we had
a coach-and-four, like Uncle!"
And, shrill and wild, rang through the air the familiar voice:--
Sylvie and Bruno |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: beaming intimately on her visitor. In the roseate penumbra
of the bed-curtains she presented to Anna's startled gaze an
odd chromo-like resemblance to Sophy Viner, or a suggestion,
rather, of what Sophy Viner might, with the years and in
spite of the powder-puff, become. Larger, blonder, heavier-
featured, she yet had glances and movements that
disturbingly suggested what was freshest and most engaging
in the girl; and as she stretched her bare plump arm across
the bed she seemed to be pulling back the veil from dingy
distances of family history.
"Do sit down, if there's a place to sit on," she cordially
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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 Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: gale that blew every evening in our canyon, for ten minutes
or perhaps a quarter of an hour, had swiftly blown itself
out; in the hours that followed not a sigh of wind had shaken
the treetops; and our barrack, for all its breaches, was less
fresh that morning than of wont. But I had no sooner reached
the window than I forgot all else in the sight that met my
eyes, and I made but two bounds into my clothes, and down the
crazy plank to the platform.
The sun was still concealed below the opposite hilltops,
though it was shining already, not twenty feet above my head,
on our own mountain slope. But the scene, beyond a few near
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