| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: for Yokohama.
"At high tide to-morrow morning," answered the pilot.
"Ah!" said Mr. Fogg, without betraying any astonishment.
Passepartout, who heard what passed, would willingly have embraced the pilot,
while Fix would have been glad to twist his neck.
"What is the steamer's name?" asked Mr. Fogg.
"The Carnatic."
"Ought she not to have gone yesterday?"
"Yes, sir; but they had to repair one of her boilers,
and so her departure was postponed till to-morrow."
"Thank you," returned Mr. Fogg, descending mathematically to the saloon.
Around the World in 80 Days |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: into which you have persuaded your friends this evening. You are, I
cannot doubt, expecting your son."
The countess made a gesture of denial; but she had turned pale, the
muscles of her face contracted from the effort that she made to
exhibit firmness, and the implacable eye of the public prosecutor lost
none of her movements.
"Well, receive him," continued the functionary of the Revolution, "but
do not keep him under your roof later than seven o'clock in the
morning. To-morrow, at eight, I shall be at your door with a
denunciation."
She looked at him with a stupid air that might have made a tiger
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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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: "Not wrong, but, in the circumstances, quite natural--I should have
foreseen that it was sure to happen. No, not wrong, but most
unfortunate. To begin with, I do not wish to see you marry a foreigner
and become mixed up with these disloyal Boers. I hoped that one day, a
good many years hence, for you are only a boy, Allan, you would find an
English wife, and I still hope it."
"Never!" I ejaculated.
"Never is a long word, Allan, and I dare say that what you are so sure
is impossible will happen after all," words that made me angry enough at
the time, though in after years I often thought of them.
"But," he went on, "putting my own wishes, perhaps prejudices, aside, I
Marie |
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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: lady she cried:
``Why, Bessie Bell! ''
Bessie Bell said, ``Sister Helen Vincula,'' and she knew she had done
something wrong, but she could only wonder what.
But the lady said very quickly,- and she held Bessie Bell's hand
even harder than before,--she said:
``Sister Helen Vincula, I must ask you something--''
Sister Helen Vincula and the lady talked a long time.
Bessie Bell did not listen very much to what they said.
She did not lean up against the lady now, but she sat close. Sister
Helen Vincula did not seem to mind that.
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