| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: Rosalie whether his wife was in bed; on the girl's replying always in
the affirmative, he at once went to his own room, with the good faith
that comes of habit and confidence. But this evening, on coming in, he
took it into his head to go to see Madame de Merret, to tell her of
his ill-luck, and perhaps to find consolation. During dinner he had
observed that his wife was very becomingly dressed; he reflected as he
came home from the club that his wife was certainly much better, that
convalescence had improved her beauty, discovering it, as husbands
discover everything, a little too late. Instead of calling Rosalie,
who was in the kitchen at the moment watching the cook and the
coachman playing a puzzling hand at cards, Monsieur de Merret made his
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: their young lives beneath cruel, rending, yellow fangs.
Jane Porter sank to her knees in prayer, closing her eyes
to shut out the last hideous instant. Thuran, weak
from fever, fainted.
Seconds dragged into minutes, long minutes into an eternity,
and yet the beast did not spring. Clayton was almost
unconscious from the prolonged agony of fright--his
knees trembled--a moment more and he would collapse.
Jane Porter could endure it no longer. She opened her eyes.
Could she be dreaming?
"William," she whispered; "look!"
The Return of Tarzan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: I say, they came in with the mixed stuffs that will neither wash
nor wear. It was not so in my youth: a Churchman was a Churchman,
and a clergyman, you might be pretty sure, was a gentleman,
if nothing else. But now he may be no better than a Dissenter,
and want to push aside my son on pretence of doctrine. But whoever
may wish to push him aside, I am proud to say, Mr. Lydgate,
that he will compare with any preacher in this kingdom, not to speak
of this town, which is but a low standard to go by; at least,
to my thinking, for I was born and bred at Exeter."
"A mother is never partial," said Mr. Farebrother, smiling.
"What do you think Tyke's mother says about him?"
Middlemarch |
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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: down the street; and then, seizing her opportunity when for half a
block or more the street was free of pedestrians, she stole forward
and reached the tenement door. It was half open, and she slipped
quickly inside into the hall.
She stood here for a moment motionless; listening, striving to
accommodate her eyes to the darkness, and instinctively her hand
went to her pocket for the reassuring touch of her revolver. It
was black back there in the hallway of Gypsy Nan's lodging; she had
not thought that any greater degree of blackness could exist; but
it was blacker here. Only the sense of touch promised to be of any
avail. If one could have moved as noiselessly as a shadow moves,
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