| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: of tranquillity which would have been applauded in a veteran actress.
"Exactly what I have told you," said Newman. "A paper
written by your husband after you had left him for dead,
and during the couple of hours before you returned.
You see he had the time; you shouldn't have stayed away so long.
It declares distinctly his wife's murderous intent."
"I should like to see it," Madame de Bellegarde observed.
"I thought you might," said Newman, "and I have taken a copy."
And he drew from his waistcoat pocket a small, folded sheet.
"Give it to my son," said Madame de Bellegarde.
Newman handed it to the marquis, whose mother, glancing at him,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: to sit mumchance, and to be ordered about till they are the
laughing-stock of young and old? I am a bye-word all over
Chigwell, and I say--and it's fairer my saying so now, than waiting
till you are dead, and I have got your money--I say, that before
long I shall be driven to break such bounds, and that when I do, it
won't be me that you'll have to blame, but your own self, and no
other.'
John Willet was so amazed by the exasperation and boldness of his
hopeful son, that he sat as one bewildered, staring in a ludicrous
manner at the boiler, and endeavouring, but quite ineffectually, to
collect his tardy thoughts, and invent an answer. The guests,
Barnaby Rudge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: fail, I had invited him to accompany me...! Now, after the time of that
happy relation, what misery for the one who must slumber alone in the
shadow of the rushes!" -- The makomo is a short of large rush, used for
making baskets.
THE STORY OF O-TEI
(1) "-sama" is a polite suffix attached to personal names.
(2) A Buddhist term commonly used to signify a kind of heaven.
[1] The Buddhist term zokumyo ("profane name") signifies the personal
name, borne during life, in contradistinction to the kaimyo ("sila-name")
or homyo ("Law-name") given after death,-- religious posthumous
appellations inscribed upon the tomb, and upon the mortuary tablet in the
Kwaidan |
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 Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: seen no longer; and its occupants must have reached town a good half hour
before we did. And now, suddenly, I was stunned with a great discovery.
The bride's voice sounded in my ear. "Well, I'll always say you're a
prophet, anyhow!"
I looked at her, dull and dazed by the internal commotion the discovery
had raised in me.
"You said we wouldn't get stuck in the mud, and we didn't," said the
bride.
I pointed to the chimneys. "Are those the phosphate works?"
"Yais. Didn't you know?"
"The V-C phosphate works?"
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