| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: sweeping over everything. The hot, brutal face before me, the face
of the man who had killed me, seemed to recede. It swept out of
existence--"
"Euston!" clamoured the voices outside; "Euston!"
The carriage door opened, admitting a flood of sound, and a porter
stood regarding us. The sounds of doors slamming, and the hoof-clatter
of cab-horses, and behind these things the featureless remote roar
of the London cobble-stones, came to my ears. A truckload of lighted
lamps blazed along the platform.
"A darkness, a flood of darkness that opened and spread and blotted
out all things."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: For answer, he crossed over to her quickly, reached down and took
the baby from her.
"What are you going to do with him?" she demanded, a-tremble with
rage and a sense of impotent helplessness, as, avoiding her quick
movement, Martin went into the bedroom.
"Let him go to sleep as other children do, while you finish
getting supper. Do you want to make a sissy of him?"
"A lot you care what he becomes!" she flashed, conflicting
impulses contending for mastery, as Billy, now thoroughly awake
and seeing his mother, began to cry, pleading to her with big
blue eyes and out-stretched arms to take him. She started
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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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: shout. Blunt drew back, and placed his hand to his shoulder. When
he drew it away again it was stained with red, and another red
stain grew and spread rapidly down the sleeve of his jacket. He
stared at his hand for a moment with a half-dazed look, and then
glanced quickly to right and left.
"I will fight no more," said he, sullenly.
"Then yield thee!" cried Myles, exultantly.
The triumphant shouts of the Knights of the Rose stung Blunt like
a lash, and the battle began again. Perhaps some of the older
lads were of a mind to interfere at this point, certainly some
looked very serious, but before they interposed, the fight was
Men of Iron |
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 Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: of him - do so he will!"
"Nay, then," returned Dick, with composure, "you and I, my poor
brother, are dead men; for I sit here a prisoner upon suspicion,
and my neck was to answer for this very marriage that he purposeth
to mar. I had a fair choice, by the rood! to lose my sweetheart or
else lose my life! Well, the cast is thrown - it is to be my
life."
"By the mass," cried Lawless, half arising, "I am gone!"
But Dick had his hand at once upon his shoulder.
"Friend Lawless, sit ye still," he said. "An ye have eyes, look
yonder at the corner by the chancel arch; see ye not that, even
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