| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: I'm going to skip and leave you rotting on the beach perhaps?
I'm not that sort, old man. And you're handy anyway; I've been
shipmates with worse.'
'God knows I can't refuse,' said Herrick. 'God knows I thank
you from my heart.'
'That's all right,' said the captain. 'But it ain't all.' He
turned aside to light a cigar.
'What else is there?' asked the other, with a pang of undefinable
alarm.
'I'm coming to that,' said Davis, and then paused a little. 'See
here,' he began, holding out his cigar between his finger and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: that had happened, dismissed us with a present of a cow, and some
provisions, desiring us to tell the Emperor of Aethiopia his father
that we had met with kind treatment in his territories, a request
which we did not at that time think it convenient to deny.
Whatever we had suffered hitherto, was nothing to the difficulties
we were now entering upon, and which God had decreed us to undergo
for the sake of Jesus Christ. Our way now lay through a region
scarce passable, and full of serpents, which were continually
creeping between our legs; we might have avoided them in the day,
but being obliged, that we might avoid the excessive heats, to take
long marches in the night, we were every moment treading upon them.
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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influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: the Strait of Boni-facio had been replaced by a vast expanse of water,
which had at first all the appearance of being utterly desert;
but on the following morning the explorers unexpectedly sighted
a little island, which, unless it should prove, as was only too likely,
to be of recent origin they concluded, from its situation,
must be a portion of the northernmost territory of Sardinia.
The _Dobryna_ approached the land as nearly as was prudent,
the boat was lowered, and in a few minutes the count and Servadac
had landed upon the islet, which was a mere plot of meadow land,
not much more than two acres in extent, dotted here and there with a few
myrtle-bushes and lentisks, interspersed with some ancient olives.
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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 Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: "May want it soon," snuffled vaguely Mr Verloc, who was coming to
the end of his calculated indiscretions.
"I don't know what you mean," remarked his wife in a tone perfectly
casual, but standing stock still between the table and the
cupboard.
"You know you can trust me," Mr Verloc remarked to the grate, with
hoarse feeling.
Mrs Verloc turned slowly towards the cupboard, saying with
deliberation:
"Oh yes. I can trust you."
And she went on with her methodical proceedings. She laid two
The Secret Agent |
