| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: stood his old-fashioned desk--six feet long, its top a
labyrinth of pigeon-holes and tiny drawers.
He pursued his studies with boyish enthusiasm and
chattered of them to Mary by the hour--with never a
word passing his lips about himself.
Aunt Abbie, the cook, brought her a cup of tea, and
Mary volunteered a question.
"Do you know the Doctor's people, Auntie?" she
asked hesitatingly.
"Lord, child, he's a mystery to everybody! All we
know is that he's the best man that ever walked the
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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 Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: In truth 'tis an old, 'tis an excellent word,
With its sound so befitting each bosom is stirr'd,
And an echo the festal hall filling is heard,
A glorious ERGO BIBAMUS!
I saw mine own love in her beauty so rare,
And bethought me of: ERGO BIBAMUS;
So I gently approach'd, and she let me stand there,
While I help'd myself, thinking: BIBAMUS!
And when she's appeased, and will clasp you and kiss,
Or when those embraces and kisses ye miss,
Take refuge, till sound is some worthier bliss,
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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 The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: knife is a palette-knife; the pencil a Winsor and Newton, and a
B B B at that. A palette-knife and a B B B on a tramp brig! It's
against the laws of nature."
"It would sicken a dog, wouldn't it?" said Nares.
"Yes," I continued, "it's been used by an artist, too: see how it's
sharpened--not for writing--no man could write with that. An
artist, and straight from Sydney? How can he come in?"
"O, that's natural enough," sneered Nares. "They cabled him to
come up and illustrate this dime novel."
We fell a while silent.
"Captain," I said at last, "there is something deuced underhand
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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 Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: and suddenly, one fine morning in spring, he res-
cued from an untimely death a grand-child of old
Swaffer.
"Swaffer's younger daughter is married to
Willcox, a solicitor and the Town Clerk of Cole-
brook. Regularly twice a year they come to stay
with the old man for a few days. Their only child,
a little girl not three years old at the time, ran out
of the house alone in her little white pinafore, and,
toddling across the grass of a terraced garden,
pitched herself over a low wall head first into the
Amy Foster |
