| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: I have no particular associations connected with them - except one
or two. What are your favourite flowers?'
'Primroses, blue-bells, and heath-blossoms.'
'Not violets?'
'No; because, as you say, I have no particular associations
connected with them; for there are no sweet violets among the hills
and valleys round my home.'
'It must be a great consolation to you to have a home, Miss Grey,'
observed my companion after a short pause: 'however remote, or
however seldom visited, still it is something to look to.'
'It is so much that I think I could not live without it,' replied
Agnes Grey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Domestic Peace by Honore de Balzac: admiration and envy centered on her, with so much eagerness that the
young creature, abashed by a triumph she seemed to disclaim, modestly
looked down, blushed, and was all the more charming. When she raised
her white eyelids it was to look at her ravished partner as though she
wished to transfer the glory of this admiration to him, and to say
that she cared more for his than for all the rest. She threw her
innocence into her vanity; or rather she seemed to give herself up to
the guileless admiration which is the beginning of love, with the good
faith found only in youthful hearts. As she danced, the lookers-on
might easily believe that she displayed her grace for Martial alone;
and though she was modest, and new to the trickery of the ballroom,
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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 Confidence by Henry James: whether he had not, after all, been a monster of duplicity.
He was guilty of the weakness of taking refuge in what is called,
I believe, in legal phrase, a side-issue.
"Don't say all this before Angela!" he exclaimed, with a kind
of artificial energy. "You know she is not in the least at fault,
and that it can only give her pain. The thing is between ourselves."
Angela was sitting there, looking up at both the men. "I like to hear it,"
she said.
"You have a singular taste!" Bernard declared.
"I know it 's between ourselves," cried Gordon, "and that Miss
Vivian is not at fault. She is only too lovely, too wise,
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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 Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: at work. I was kept a full hour here, pondering uncomfortably on
the strange whims and fancies of the great man who then ruled
France as the King's Lieutenant-General, with all the King's
powers, and whose life I had once been the means of saving by a
little timely information. On occasion he had done something to
wipe out the debt; and at other times he had permitted me to be
free with him, and so far we were not unknown to one another.
Nevertheless, when the doors were at last thrown open, and I was
led into his presence, my confidence underwent a shock. His cold
glance, that, roving over me, regarded me not as a man but an
item, the steely glitter of his southern eyes, chilled me to the
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