| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: the suspected house. It was closed, but I imagined I could hear
Johnson's footsteps ascending heavily. Then even that was gone.
A near-by clock struck three as I stood waiting. I examined my
revolver then, for the first time, and found it was empty!
I had been rather skeptical until now. I had had the usual tolerant
attitude of the man who is summoned from his bed to search for
burglars, combined with the artificial courage of firearms. With
the discovery of my empty gun, I felt like a man on the top of a
volcano in lively eruption. Suddenly I found myself staring
incredulously at the trap-door at my feet. I had examined it early
in the evening and found it bolted. Did I imagine it, or had it
The Man in Lower Ten |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: I had found words that she must remember, that would ring in her
ears at night upon her bed. What mattered if I were half shaved
and my clothes a caricature? I was still a man, and I had drawn my
image on her memory. I was still a man, and, as I trembled to
realise, she was still a woman. Many waters cannot quench love;
and love, which is the law of the world, was on my side. I closed
my eyes, and she sprang up on the background of the darkness, more
beautiful than in life. 'Ah!' thought I, 'and you too, my dear,
you too must carry away with you a picture, that you are still to
behold again and still to embellish. In the darkness of night, in
the streets by day, still you are to have my voice and face,
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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 Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: Listen to those false relations! What does he want with six drums
and eight horns when Mozart worked miracles with two of each? The
man is no musician." The layman neither knows nor cares about any
of these things. If Wagner were to turn aside from his
straightforward dramatic purpose to propitiate the professors
with correct exercises in sonata form, his music would at once
become unintelligible to the unsophisticated spectator, upon whom
the familiar and dreaded "classical" sensation would descend like
the influenza. Nothing of the kind need be dreaded. The
unskilled, untaught musician may approach Wagner boldly; for
there is no possibility of a misunderstanding between them: The
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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 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: whereupon Tom frowned, pushed back his chair, and without a word went
inside. As if his absence quickened something within her, Daisy leaned
forward again, her voice glowing and singing.
"I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a--of a rose, an
absolute rose. Doesn't he?" She turned to Miss Baker for confirmation:
"An absolute rose?"
This was untrue. I am not even faintly like a rose. She was only
extemporizing, but a stirring warmth flowed from her, as if her
heart was trying to come out to you concealed in one of those
breathless, thrilling words. Then suddenly she threw her napkin on the
table and excused herself and went into the house.
The Great Gatsby |
