| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: and I have been practicing shorthand very assiduously.
When we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan,
and if I can stenograph well enough I can take down what he wants
to say in this way and write it out for him on the typewriter,
at which also I am practicing very hard.
He and I sometimes write letters in shorthand, and he is keeping
a stenographic journal of his travels abroad. When I am with you
I shall keep a diary in the same way. I don't mean one of those
two-pages-to-the-week-with-Sunday-squeezed-in-a-corner diaries,
but a sort of journal which I can write in whenever I feel inclined.
I do not suppose there will be much of interest to other people, but it
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Here he found Gernois with the column, but there was no
sign of the stranger.
It was market day at Sidi Aissa, and the numberless caravans
of camels coming in from the desert, and the crowds of
bickering Arabs in the market place, filled Tarzan with a
consuming desire to remain for a day that he might see more of
these sons of the desert. Thus it was that the company of
SPAHIS marched on that afternoon toward Bou Saada without
him. He spent the hours until dark wandering about the
market in company with a youthful Arab, one Abdul, who
had been recommended to him by the innkeeper as a trustworthy
The Return of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: CHAPTER 23 An outlandish watch
CHAPTER 24 The Frogs' Birthday-treat
CHAPTER 25 Looking Easward
Preface [Moved to the end]
SYLVIE AND BRUNO
CHAPTER 1.
LESS BREAD! MORE TAXES!
--and then all the people cheered again, and one man, who was more
excited than the rest, flung his hat high into the air, and shouted
(as well as I could make out) "Who roar for the Sub-Warden?" Everybody
roared, but whether it was for the Sub-Warden, or not, did not clearly
Sylvie and Bruno |
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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: unfaithful.
A woman, flexible of form, slender, yet rhythmic of strength in
every movement, now pausing with this group, now scanning that,
urged a restless and devious course among the revellers. Men
recognized the furs, and marvelled,--men who should have served
upon the door committee; but they were not prone to speech. Not
so with the women. They had better eyes for the lines of figure
and tricks of carriage, and they knew this form to be one with
which they were unfamiliar; likewise the furs. Mrs. McFee,
emerging from the supper-room where all was in readiness, caught
one flash of the blazing, questing eyes through the silken mask-
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