| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: great level ocean. It was as though I had gone to bed the
night before, safe in a nook of inland mountains, and had
awakened in a bay upon the coast. I had seen these
inundations from below; at Calistoga I had risen and gone
abroad in the early morning, coughing and sneezing, under
fathoms on fathoms of gray sea vapour, like a cloudy sky - a
dull sight for the artist, and a painful experience for the
invalid. But to sit aloft one's self in the pure air and
under the unclouded dome of heaven, and thus look down on the
submergence of the valley, was strangely different and even
delightful to the eyes. Far away were hilltops like little
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: him. He had begun some time since to "crape," and he knew just why
a packet of candles addressed to that pursuit had been stowed by
his own hand, three weeks before, at the back of a drawer of the
fine old sideboard that occupied, as a "fixture," the deep recess
in the dining-room. Just now he laughed at his companions -
quickly however changing the subject; for the reason that, in the
first place, his laugh struck him even at that moment as starting
the odd echo, the conscious human resonance (he scarce knew how to
qualify it) that sounds made while he was there alone sent back to
his ear or his fancy; and that, in the second, he imagined Alice
Staverton for the instant on the point of asking him, with a
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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 Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: infirmities of old age. Her dress, though that of a peasant, was
uncommonly clean, forming in that particular a strong contrast to
most of her rank, and was disposed with an attention to neatness,
and even to taste, equally unusual. But it was her expression of
countenance which chiefly struck the spectator, and induced most
persons to address her with a degree of deference and civility
very inconsistent with the miserable state of her dwelling, and
which, nevertheless, she received with that easy composure which
showed she feelt it to be her due. She had once been beautiful,
but her beauty had been of a bold and masculine cast, such as
does not survive the bloom of youth; yet her features continued
The Bride of Lammermoor |
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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: to speak aside with him. 'Why not? This woman is under her husband's
control; the agreement would be void in law; you could not possibly
assert your ignorance of a fact recorded on the very face of the
document itself. You would be compelled at once to produce the
diamonds deposited with you, according to the weight, value, and
cutting therein described.'
"Gobseck cut me short with a nod, and turned towards the guilty
couple.
" 'He is right!' he said. 'That puts the whole thing in a different
light. Eighty thousand francs down, and you leave the diamonds with
me,' he added, in the husky, flute-like voice. 'In the way of
Gobseck |
