| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: if it had rested peacefully in the hollow of the great hand of
Providence. Every dwelling was distinctly visible; the little
spires of the two churches pointed upwards, and caught a
fore-glimmering of brightness from the sun-gilt skies upon their
gilded weather-cocks. The tavern was astir, and the figure of the
old, smoke-dried stage-agent, cigar in mouth, was seen beneath
the stoop. Old Graylock was glorified with a golden cloud upon
his head. Scattered likewise over the breasts of the surrounding
mountains, there were heaps of hoary mist, in fantastic shapes,
some of them far down into the valley, others high up towards the
summits, and still others, of the same family of mist or cloud,
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: savagery imaginable to the mind of man.
And then the leader charged, and upon the hideous
pandemonium broke the sharp crack of my rifle, once, twice,
thrice. Three lions rolled, struggling and biting, to the
floor. Victory seized my arm, with a quick, "This way!
Here is a door," and a moment later we were in a tiny
antechamber at the foot of a narrow stone staircase.
Up this we backed, Victory just behind me, as the first of
the remaining lions leaped from the throne room and sprang
for the stairs. Again I fired, but others of the ferocious
beasts leaped over their fallen fellows and pursued us.
Lost Continent |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: a dead drooping hand, which hung there convulsed and helpless,
as though it had been thrust forth in denunciation of some evil
mystery within the house, and had sunk struggling into death.
A girl who was drawing water from the well in the court said that
the English doctor lived on the first floor, and Wyant, passing
through a glazed door, mounted the damp degrees of a vaulted
stairway with a plaster AEsculapius mouldering in a niche on the
landing. Facing the AEsculapius was another door, and as Wyant
put his hand on the bell-rope he remembered his unknown friend's
injunction, and rang twice.
His ring was answered by a peasant woman with a low forehead and
|
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 Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: Liddy and I got as far as the card-room and turned on all the
lights. I tried the small entry door there, which opened on the
veranda, and examined the windows. Everything was secure, and
Liddy, a little less nervous now, had just pointed out to me the
disgracefully dusty condition of the hard-wood floor, when
suddenly the lights went out. We waited a moment; I think Liddy
was stunned with fright, or she would have screamed. And then I
clutched her by the arm and pointed to one of the windows opening
on the porch. The sudden change threw the window into relief, an
oblong of grayish light, and showed us a figure standing close,
peering in. As I looked it darted across the veranda and out of
The Circular Staircase |
