| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: amusingly,--hopelessly.
I did glance at him. You don't get your sagacity recognized by a
man's wife without feeling the propriety and even the need to glance
at the man now and again. So I glanced at him. Very masculine. So
much so that "hopelessly" was not the last word of it. He was
helpless. He was bound and delivered by it. And if by the obscure
promptings of my composite temperament I beheld him with malicious
amusement, yet being in fact, by definition and especially from
profound conviction, a man, I could not help sympathizing with him
largely. Seeing him thus disarmed, so completely captive by the
very nature of things I was moved to speak to him kindly.
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: "We belong to all three worlds."
"What three worlds - what do you mean?"
"There are three worlds," said Corpang composedly. "The first is
Faceny's, the second is Amfuse's, the third is Thire's. From him
Threal gets it name."
"But this is mere nomenclature. In what sense are there three
worlds?"
Corpang passed his hand over his forehead. "All this we can discuss
as we go along. It's a torment to me to be standing still."
Maskull stared again at the spot where Leehallfae's body had lain,
quite bewildered at the extraordinary disappearance. He could
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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 Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.
THE STORY OF A MOTHER
A mother sat there with her little child. She was so downcast, so afraid that
it should die! It was so pale, the small eyes had closed themselves, and it
drew its breath so softly, now and then, with a deep respiration, as if it
sighed; and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature.
Then a knocking was heard at the door, and in came a poor old man wrapped up
as in a large horse-cloth, for it warms one, and he needed it, as it was the
cold winter season! Everything out-of doors was covered with ice and snow, and
the wind blew so that it cut the face.
As the old man trembled with cold, and the little child slept a moment, the
Fairy Tales |
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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: what I should like to offer you,' he would conclude. 'I am quite aware
that you scarcely care a bit about me; but, at my age, we cannot
expect too much. Judge how much I love you; I have lent you a thousand
francs. I must confess that, in all my born days, I have not lent
anybody /that/ much----'
"He held out his penny as he spoke, with the important air of a man
that gives a learned demonstration.
"That evening at the Varietes, Antonia spoke to the Count.
" 'A reading-room is very dull, all the same,' said she; 'I feel that
I have no sort of taste for that kind of life, and I see no future in
it. It is only fit for a widow that wishes to keep body and soul
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