| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: One morning the servant of the lodging house brought to Ginevra's room
a number of trunks and packages containing stuffs, linen, clothes, and
a great quantity of other articles necessary for a young wife in
setting up a home of her own. In this welcome provision she recognized
her mother's foresight, and, on examining the gifts, she found a
purse, in which the baroness had put the money belonging to her
daughter, adding to it the amount of her own savings. The purse was
accompanied by a letter, in which the mother implored the daughter to
forego the fatal marriage if it were still possible to do so. It had
cost her, she said, untold difficulty to send these few things to her
daughter; she entreated her not to think her hard if, henceforth, she
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: once the lure of the trail has caught him. He scarcely eats or
sleeps when the chase is on, he does not seem to know human
weakness nor fatigue, in spite of his frail body. Once put on
a case his mind delves and delves until it finds a clue, then
something awakes within him, a spirit akin to that which holds
the bloodhound nose to trail, and he will accomplish the apparently
impossible, he will track down his victim when the entire machinery
of a great police department seems helpless to discover anything.
The high chiefs and commissioners grant a condescending permission
when Muller asks, "May I do this? ... or may I handle this case
this way?" both parties knowing all the while that it is a farce,
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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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: struggle then ensued. Blood was a man of powerful physique, but
Beekman was lithe and vigorous, and succeeded in holding the
rogue until help arrived. In the contest, the regalia fell to
the ground, when a fair diamond and a priceless pearl were lost;
they were, however, eventually recovered. The other thieves were
likewise captured, and all of them secured in the Tower.
Certain death now faced Blood; but the wonderful luck which had
befriended him during life did not desert him now. At this time
the Duke of Buckingham was high in favour with the king, and
desirous of saving one who had secretly served him; or fearing
exposure if Blood made a full confession, his grace impressed
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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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: appears to utter not so much from its proper place on the platform as
from the immediate neighbourhood of the listener's ear. And as the
echoes of the drowsy mansion resounded to the report of the explosion
there followed upon the same a wave of perfume, skilfully wafted
abroad with a flourish of the eau-de-Cologne-scented handkerchief.
By this time the reader will have guessed that the visitor was none
other than our old and respected friend Paul Ivanovitch Chichikov.
Naturally, time had not spared him his share of anxieties and alarms;
wherefore his exterior had come to look a trifle more elderly, his
frockcoat had taken on a suggestion of shabbiness, and britchka,
coachman, valet, horses, and harness alike had about them a sort of
Dead Souls |
