| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas: killed by frost.
When the sun became too hot, Rosa likewise took in the pot
from eleven in the morning until two in the afternoon.
Another proof: Cornelius was afraid lest the soil should
become too dry.
But when the first leaves peeped out of the earth Boxtel was
fully convinced; and his telescope left him no longer in any
uncertainty before they had grown one inch in height.
Cornelius possessed two bulbs, and the second was intrusted
to the love and care of Rosa.
For it may well be imagined that the tender secret of the
The Black Tulip |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs: his scientific experiments."
She used the last words on a chance that she might have
hit upon the true reason for the contemplated isolation
from civilization. They had served their purpose too
in deceiving von Horn who was now half convinced that
Professor Maxon must have divulged more of their plans
to his daughter than he had led the medical man to
believe. Perceiving her advantage from the expression
on the young man's face, Virginia followed it up in an
endeavor to elicit the details.
The result of her effort was the knowledge that on the
The Monster Men |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: said grimly (but his mind was turned away again) that very few people
liked it as much as they said they did. But, he added, there is
considerable merit in some of the plays nevertheless, and Mrs Ramsay
saw that it would be all right for the moment anyhow; he would laugh at
Minta, and she, Mrs Ramsay saw, realising his extreme anxiety about
himself, would, in her own way, see that he was taken care of, and
praise him, somehow or other. But she wished it was not necessary:
perhaps it was her fault that it was necessary. Anyhow, she was free
now to listen to what Paul Rayley was trying to say about books one had
read as a boy. They lasted, he said. He had read some of Tolstoi at
school. There was one he always remembered, but he had forgotten the
To the Lighthouse |
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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: Furthermore, in the market and in common trade likewise, this practice
is in full swing and force to the greatest extent, where one openly
defrauds another with bad merchandise, false measures, weights, coins,
and by nimbleness and queer finances or dexterous tricks takes
advantage of him; likewise, when one overcharges a person in a trade
and wantonly drives a hard bargain, skins and distresses him. And who
can recount or think of all these things? To sum up, this is the
commonest craft and the largest guild on earth, and if we regard the
world throughout all conditions of life, it is nothing else than a
vast, wide stall, full of great thieves.
Therefore they are also called swivel-chair robbers, land- and
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