| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: alive, also whether I should take the trouble to walk up the kloof and
find out. On the whole I thought that I would not, as the place
repelled me, and I did not particularly wish to hear any more of his
prophecies and fierce, ill-omened talk. So I just sat there studying
the wonderful effect of the red evening light pouring up between those
walls of fantastic rocks.
Presently I perceived, far away, a single human figure--whether it were
man or woman I could not tell--walking towards me along the path which
ran at the bottom of the cleft. In those gigantic surroundings it
looked extraordinarily small and lonely, although perhaps because of the
intense red light in which it was bathed, or perhaps just because it was
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: finished him; and if he had not been succoured in that sore
extremity by a sage, a great friend of his, it would have gone very
hard with the poor knight; so I may well suffer in company with such
worthy folk, for greater were the indignities which they had to suffer
than those which we suffer. For I would have thee know, Sancho, that
wounds caused by any instruments which happen by chance to be in
hand inflict no indignity, and this is laid down in the law of the
duel in express words: if, for instance, the cobbler strikes another
with the last which he has in his hand, though it be in fact a piece
of wood, it cannot be said for that reason that he whom he struck with
it has been cudgelled. I say this lest thou shouldst imagine that
Don Quixote |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The White Moll by Frank L. Packard: White Moll. And then, in another ten minutes, she should be back
again at the Pug's room. The Pug had said he would not be much more
than half an hour, but, as nearly as she could calculate it, that
would still give her from five to ten minutes alone with Pinkie
Bonn. It was enough - more than enough. The prestige of the White
Moll would do the rest. A revolver in the hands of the White Moll
would insure instant and obedient respect from Pinkie Bonn, or any
other member of the gang under similar conditions. And so - and so
- it - would not be difficult. Only there was a queer fluttering
at her heart now, and her breath came in hard, short little
inhalations. And she spoke suddenly to herself:
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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 Purse by Honore de Balzac: indefinable nothings of their chat, animated by kind feeling,
naturally led Hippolyte to flash forth remarks or reflections
which showed the character of his habits and of his mind. Trouble
had prematurely faded the old lady's face, formerly handsome, no
doubt; nothing was left but the more prominent features, the
outline, in a word, the skeleton of a countenance of which the
whole effect indicated great shrewdness with much grace in the
play of the eyes, in which could be discerned the expression
peculiar to women of the old Court; an expression that cannot be
defined in words. Those fine and mobile features might quite as
well indicate bad feelings, and suggest astuteness and womanly
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