| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: or force the Baltic to overflow the sides of its gigantic basin.
We will, therefore, not listen to what was spoken, and on no condition run in
the possibility of telling tales out of school; but we will rather proceed,
like good quiet citizens, to East Street, and observe what happened meanwhile
to the body of the watchman.
He sat lifeless on the steps: the morning-star,* that is to say, the heavy
wooden staff, headed with iron spikes, and which had nothing else in common
with its sparkling brother in the sky, had glided from his hand; while his
eyes were fixed with glassy stare on the moon, looking for the good old fellow
of a spirit which still haunted it.
*The watchmen in Germany, had formerly, and in some places they still carry
Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: "Yes, yes! I am nothing in it--I am nothing in it.
You only trifle with me. Heaven, what can I, Eustacia Vye,
be made of to think so much of you!"
"Nonsense; do not be so passionate....Eustacia, how we
roved among these bushes last year, when the hot days
had got cool, and the shades of the hills kept us almost
invisible in the hollows!"
She remained in moody silence till she said, "Yes; and
how I used to laugh at you for daring to look up to me!
But you have well made me suffer for that since."
"Yes, you served me cruelly enough until I thought I had
Return of the Native |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: P.L.C. He looked an agonized question at Mr. Carter. The latter
replied to it:
"Washed up on the Yorkshire coast--near Ebury. I'm afraid--it
looks very much like foul play."
"My God!" gasped Tommy. "TUPPENCE! Those devils--I'll never
rest till I've got even with them! I'll hunt them down!
I'll----"
The pity on Mr. Carter's face stopped him.
"I know what you feel like, my poor boy. But it's no good.
You'll waste your strength uselessly. It may sound harsh, but my
advice to you is: Cut your losses. Time's merciful. You'll
Secret Adversary |
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 Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: other hours, and maybe days in a fruitless exploration of another
blind lead would unquestionably prove fatal.
Several times I essayed the right-hand entrance only to turn
back as though warned by some strange intuitive sense that
this was not the way. At last, convinced by the oft-recurring
phenomenon, I cast my all upon the left-hand archway; yet it was
with a lingering doubt that I turned a parting look at the sullen
waters which rolled, dark and forbidding, from beneath the grim,
low archway on the right.
The Warlord of Mars |
