| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: the surf it was, and like a flower it tossed on the waves. And the
surf took it from the waves, and the foam took it from the surf,
and the shore received it, and lying at his feet the young
Fisherman saw the body of the little Mermaid. Dead at his feet it
was lying.
Weeping as one smitten with pain he flung himself down beside it,
and he kissed the cold red of the mouth, and toyed with the wet
amber of the hair. He flung himself down beside it on the sand,
weeping as one trembling with joy, and in his brown arms he held it
to his breast. Cold were the lips, yet he kissed them. Salt was
the honey of the hair, yet he tasted it with a bitter joy. He
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: declarations was precipitated by his friend's having herself broken
out, after a yearning look round: "But I hope you don't mean they
want you to pull THIS to pieces!" His answer came, promptly, with
his re-awakened wrath: it was of course exactly what they wanted,
and what they were "at" him for, daily, with the iteration of
people who couldn't for their life understand a man's liability to
decent feelings. He had found the place, just as it stood and
beyond what he could express, an interest and a joy. There were
values other than the beastly rent-values, and in short, in short -
! But it was thus Miss Staverton took him up. "In short you're to
make so good a thing of your sky-scraper that, living in luxury on
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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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: was peculiar about it was its colour. It was an entirely new colour
- not a new shade or combination, but a new primary colour, as vivid
as blue, red, or yellow, but quite different. When he inquired, she
told him that it was known as "ulfire." Presently he met with a
second new colour. This she designated "jale." The sense impressions
caused in Maskull by these two additional primary colors can only be
vaguely hinted at by analogy. Just as blue is delicate and
mysterious, yellow clear and unsubtle, and red sanguine and
passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild and painful, and jale
dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous.
The hills were composed of a rich, dark mould. Small trees, of weird
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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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: What I want to say is this. Fay has taken you're pretendin'
to--to care for me for the thing it looks on the face. An' her
little formin' mind asks questions. An' the answers she gets are
different from the looks of things. So she'll grow up gradually
takin' on that falseness, an' be like the rest of the women, an'
men, too. An' the truth of this falseness to life is proved by
your appearin' to love me when you don't. Things aren't what they
seem."
"Lassiter, you're right. A child should be told the absolute
truth. But--is that possible? I haven't been able to do it, and
all my life I've loved the truth, and I've prided myself upon
Riders of the Purple Sage |
