| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: in proximity to Mrs. Westgate's sister. Though she was but a girl of twenty,
she appeared to feel the obligation to exert an active hospitality; and this
was, perhaps, the more to be noticed as she seemed by nature a reserved
and retiring person, and had little of her sister's fraternizing quality.
She was perhaps rather too thin, and she was a little pale; but as she moved
slowly over the grass, with her arms hanging at her sides, looking gravely
for a moment at the sea and then brightly, for all her gravity, at him,
Lord Lambeth thought her at least as pretty as Mrs. Westgate, and reflected
that if this was the Boston style the Boston style was very charming.
He thought she looked very clever; he could imagine that she was
highly educated; but at the same time she seemed gentle and graceful.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: with their screws on several points of its circumference.
Presently the pickaxe attacked this compact matter vigorously,
and large blocks were detached from the mass. By a curious
effect of specific gravity, these blocks, lighter than water,
fled, so to speak, to the vault of the tunnel, that increased
in thickness at the top in proportion as it diminished at the base.
But that mattered little, so long as the lower part grew thinner.
After two hours' hard work, Ned Land came in exhausted. He and his
comrades were replaced by new workers, whom Conseil and I joined.
The second lieutenant of the Nautilus superintended us.
The water seemed singularly cold, but I soon got warm
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it,
however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood
and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed
that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been
disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was
shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had
waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time
that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had
already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed
round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks,
which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: wind-bowed and scanty bushes, and all golden brown with the
winter, like a grouse. Right over against the girl the last
red embers of the sunset burned under horizontal clouds; the
night fell clear and still and frosty, and the track in low
and marshy passages began to crackle under foot with ice.
Some half a mile beyond the borders of the wood the lights of
the 'Green Dragon' hove in sight, and running close beside
them, very faint in the dying dusk, the pale ribbon of the
Great North Road. It was the back of the post-house that was
presented to Nance Holdaway; and as she continued to draw
near and the night to fall more completely, she became aware
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