| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: never to see him again.
She had seen the despair of the prisoner, and she knew that
it was derived from a double source, and that it was
incurable.
On the one hand, separation became inevitable, -- Gryphus
having at the same time surprised the secret of their love
and of their secret meetings.
On the other hand, all the hopes on the fulfilment of which
Cornelius van Baerle had rested his ambition for the last
seven years were now crushed.
Rosa was one of those women who are dejected by trifles, but
The Black Tulip |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Sara Lee replied to that, and then gave a quick thought to her larder.
Because generals usually meant tea. But this time at last Sara Lee was
to receive something, not to give. She turned very white when she was
told, and said she had not deserved it; she was indeed on the verge of
declining, not knowing that there are certain things one does not
decline. But Marie brought her hat and jacket - a smiling, tremulous
Marie - and Sara Lee put them on.
The general was very tall. In her short skirt and with flying hair she
looked like a child beside him as they walked across the fields.
Suddenly Sara Lee was terribly afraid she was going to cry.
The troops stood rigidly at attention. And a cold wind flapped Sara
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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 Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: black nor white. There was nae noise to be heard, but just the sough of
the swalled burns, and Hob, the dour yin, risping his teeth as he gaed."
With the first glint of the morning they saw they were on the drove
road, and at that the four stopped and had a dram to their breakfasts,
for they knew that Dand must have guided them right, and the rogues
could be but little ahead, hot foot for Edinburgh by the way of the
Pentland Hills. By eight o'clock they had word of them - a shepherd had
seen four men "uncoly mishandled" go by in the last hour. "That's yin a
piece," says Clem, and swung his cudgel. "Five o' them!" says Hob.
"God's death, but the faither was a man! And him drunk!" And then
there befell them what my author termed "a sair misbegowk," for they
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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 An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: inn, and look upon all his extravagances as so much gained upon the
thieves. And above all, where instead of simply spending, he makes
a profitable investment for some of his money, when it will be out
of risk of loss. So every bit of brisk living, and above all when
it is healthful, is just so much gained upon the wholesale filcher,
death. We shall have the less in our pockets, the more in our
stomach, when he cries stand and deliver. A swift stream is a
favourite artifice of his, and one that brings him in a comfortable
thing per annum; but when he and I come to settle our accounts, I
shall whistle in his face for these hours upon the upper Oise.
Towards afternoon we got fairly drunken with the sunshine and the
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