| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: girl got out, leading a child by the hand. They entered the hall, were
greeted and shown to their room. Ten minutes later she came down with the
child to sign the visitors' book. She wore a black, closely fitting dress,
touched at throat and wrists with white frilling. Her brown hair, braided,
was tied with a black bow--unusually pale, with a small mole on her left
cheek.
"I am the Baroness von Gall's sister," she said, trying the pen on a piece
of blotting-paper, and smiling at us deprecatingly. Even for the most
jaded of us life holds its thrilling moments. Two Baronesses in two
months! The manager immediately left the room to find a new nib.
To my plebeian eyes that afflicted child was singularly unattractive. 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 Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: In my opinion, I say, the poet spoke both well and prudently; but if you
have anything to say in answer to him, speak out.
ALCIBIADES: It is difficult, Socrates, to oppose what has been well said.
And I perceive how many are the ills of which ignorance is the cause,
since, as would appear, through ignorance we not only do, but what is
worse, pray for the greatest evils. No man would imagine that he would do
so; he would rather suppose that he was quite capable of praying for what
was best: to call down evils seems more like a curse than a prayer.
SOCRATES: But perhaps, my good friend, some one who is wiser than either
you or I will say that we have no right to blame ignorance thus rashly,
unless we can add what ignorance we mean and of what, and also to whom and
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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 Finished by H. Rider Haggard: English when they walked into the trap, not a man of your people
would have been left alive. Would that have happened in the time
of Chaka?"
"I think not, Zikali. Still I am glad that it did happen."
"I think not too, Macumazahn, but small men, small wit. Also
like you I am glad that it did not happen, since it is the Zulus
I hate, not the English who have now learned a lesson and will
not be caught again. Oh! many a captain in Zululand is to-day
flat as a pricked bladder, and even their victory, as they call
it, cost them dear. For, mind you, Macumazahn, for every white
man they killed two of them died. So, so! In the morning you
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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 People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: indication of fear. Involuntarily I threw my left arm about
her and drew her to me for an instant. It was an act of
reassurance rather than a caress, though I must admit that
again and even in the face of death I thrilled at the contact
with her; and then I released her and threw my rifle to my
shoulder, for at last I had reached the conclusion that nothing
more could be gained by waiting. My only hope was to get as
many shots into the creature as I could before it was upon me.
Already it had torn away a second rock and was in the very act
of forcing its huge bulk through the opening it had now made.
So now I took careful aim between its eyes; my right fingers
The People That Time Forgot |
