| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: let her.'
'Well, that is just what I do with my house every Thursday
evening,' cried Lady Windermere, laughing, 'only I like lions
better than collie dogs.'
'Your one mistake, Lady Windermere,' said Mr. Podgers, with a
pompous bow.
'If a woman can't make her mistakes charming, she is only a
female,' was the answer. 'But you must read some more hands for
us. Come, Sir Thomas, show Mr. Podgers yours'; and a genial-
looking old gentleman, in a white waistcoat, came forward, and held
out a thick rugged hand, with a very long third finger.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the ground and buried his face in his hands. "Oh, Gord," he moaned.
"Tyke me awy from this orful plice." Brady, recovered from the
first shock, swore loud and luridly. He called upon all the
saints to witness that he was unafraid and that anybody with half
an eye could have seen that the creature was nothing more than
"one av thim flyin' alligators" that they all were familiar with.
"Yes," said Sinclair with fine sarcasm, "we've saw so many of
them with white shrouds on 'em."
"Shut up, you fool!" growled Brady. "If you know so much, tell
us what it was after bein' then."
Then he turned toward Bradley. "What was it, sor, do you think?"
Out of Time's Abyss |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: ships of good burthen may come up to the quay; but there is no
bridge, the stream being too strong and the bottom moorish and
unsound; nor, for the same reason, is the anchorage computed the
best in the world; but there are good roads farther down.
They pass over here in boats into the fen country, and over the
famous washes into Lincolnshire, but the passage is very dangerous
and uneasy, and where passengers often miscarry and are lost; but
then it is usually on their venturing at improper times, and
without the guides, which if they would be persuaded not to do,
they would very rarely fail of going or coming safe.
From Lynn I bent my course to Downham, where is an ugly wooden
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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 Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: so as to admire him to-morrow for the secrets of his craft after
enjoying the results to-night? What do you suppose produces this
effect of daylight--so sudden, so complicated, and so complete? It
consists of a simple chord of C, constantly reiterated, varied only by
the chord of 4-6. This reveals the magic of his touch. To show you the
glory of light he has worked by the same means that he used to
represent darkness and sorrow.
"This dawn in imagery is, in fact, absolutely the same as the natural
dawn; for light is one and the same thing everywhere, always alike in
itself, the effects varying only with the objects it falls on. Is it
not so? Well, the musician has taken for the fundamental basis of his
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