| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: thatched pinion of his paternal roof had vanished from its site,
and that the walls were levelled. In present circumstances he had
a feeling for the spot that might have been called morbid, and
when he had supped in the hut aforesaid he made use of the spare
hour before bedtime to return to Little Hintock in the twilight
and ramble over the patch of ground on which he had first seen the
day.
He repeated this evening visit on several like occasions. Even in
the gloom he could trace where the different rooms had stood;
could mark the shape of the kitchen chimney-corner, in which he
had roasted apples and potatoes in his boyhood, cast his bullets,
The Woodlanders |
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 Enemies of Books by William Blades: through each board into the paper of the book.
I remember well my first visit to the Bodleian Library,
in the year 1858, Dr. Bandinel being then the librarian.
He was very kind, and afforded me every facility for examining
the fine collection of "Caxtons," which was the object of my journey.
In looking over a parcel of black-letter fragments, which had been
in a drawer for a long time, I came across a small grub, which,
without a thought, I threw on the floor and trod under foot.
Soon after I found another, a fat, glossy fellow, so long ---,
which I carefully preserved in a little paper box, intending to
observe his habits and development. Seeing Dr. Bandinel near,
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