| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: nothing until she had finished, when his quiet "well done, Miss
Tuppence," made her flush with pleasure.
"There's one thing I don't get clearly," said Julius. "What put
her up to clearing out?"
"I don't know," confessed Tuppence.
Sir James stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"The room was in great disorder. That looks as though her flight
was unpremeditated. Almost as though she got a sudden warning to
go from some one."
"Mr. Brown, I suppose," said Julius scoffingly.
The lawyer looked at him deliberately for a minute or two.
Secret Adversary |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: in the last instance, there were always the walls of my cell to
dash my head against."
The shortness of breath took all fire, all animation out of his
voice; his great, pale cheeks hung like filled pouches, motionless,
without a quiver; but in his blue eyes, narrowed as if peering,
there was the same look of confident shrewdness, a little crazy in
its fixity, they must have had while the indomitable optimist sat
thinking at night in his cell. Before him, Karl Yundt remained
standing, one wing of his faded greenish havelock thrown back
cavalierly over his shoulder. Seated in front of the fireplace,
Comrade Ossipon, ex-medical student, the principal writer of the F.
The Secret Agent |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: readjustment; as probably not one private soldier in an army of ten or even
of twenty thousand, though he is willing to give his life for his land,
would yet be able to draw up a clear and succinct account of his land's
history in the past and of the conditions which have made war inevitable;
and almost as little can he often paint an exact and detailed picture of
the benefits to flow from his efts. He knows his land has need of him; he
knows his own small place and work.
It is possible that not one woman in ten thousand has grasped with
scientific exactitude, and still less could express with verbal sharpness,
the great central conditions which yet compel and animate her into action.
Even the great, central fact, that with each generation the entire race
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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 Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: or three and three; their minds were perfect blanks."
Oh, ye women of England! from the Princess of that Wales to the
simplest of you, do not think your own children can be brought into
their true fold of rest, while these are scattered on the hills, as
sheep having no shepherd. And do not think your daughters can be
trained to the truth of their own human beauty, while the pleasant
places, which God made at once for their schoolroom and their
playground, lie desolate and defiled. You cannot baptize them
rightly in those inch-deep fonts of yours, unless you baptize them
also in the sweet waters which the great Lawgiver strikes forth for
ever from the rocks of your native land--waters which a Pagan would
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