| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: which at once shuts again of its own elasticity. Nor is this all:
the Spider, when she returns home, often bolts herself in, that is
to say, she joins and fastens the two leaves of the door with a
little silk.
The Mason Mygale is no safer in her burrow, with its lid
undistinguishable from the soil and moving on a hinge, than is the
Clotho in her tent, which is inviolable by any enemy ignorant of
the device. The Clotho, when in danger, runs quickly home; she
opens the chink with a touch of her claw, enters and disappears.
The door closes of itself and is supplied, in case of need, with a
lock consisting of a few threads. No burglar, led astray by the
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: actively to prepare and that engaged me as an active admirer.
I walked in a world of their invention--they had no occasion whatever
to draw upon mine; so that my time was taken only with being,
for them, some remarkable person or thing that the game of
the moment required and that was merely, thanks to my superior,
my exalted stamp, a happy and highly distinguished sinecure.
I forget what I was on the present occasion; I only remember
that I was something very important and very quiet and that Flora
was playing very hard. We were on the edge of the lake, and, as we
had lately begun geography, the lake was the Sea of Azof.
Suddenly, in these circumstances, I became aware that, on the
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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 A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: daughter were united at least in their common regret at the
absence of the young bookseller. To vary the monotony of
existence, to find if possible a husband for her daughter, Madame
Boyer decided to leave Montpellier for Marseilles, and there
start some kind of business. The daughter, who foresaw greater
amusement and pleasure in the life of a large city, assented
willingly. On October 6, 1876, they arrived at Marseilles, and
soon after Madame bought at a price considerably higher than
their value, two shops adjoining one another in the Rue de
la Republique. One was a cheese shop, the other a milliner's.
The mother arranged that she should look after the cheese shop,
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
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 Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: "On the contrary they adore--we all adore here--the rococo, and
where is there a better setting for it than the whole thing, the
pavilion and the garden, together? There are lots of people with
collections," little Bilham smiled as he glanced round. "You'll be
secured!"
It made Strether for a moment give himself again to contemplation.
There were faces he scarce knew what to make of. Were they
charming or were they only strange? He mightn't talk politics, yet
he suspected a Pole or two. The upshot was the question at the
back of his head from the moment his friend had joined him. "Have
Madame de Vionnet and her daughter arrived?"
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