| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moby Dick by Herman Melville: through what in old times must have been a great central chimney with
fireplaces all round--you enter the public room. A still duskier
place is this, with such low ponderous beams above, and such old
wrinkled planks beneath, that you would almost fancy you trod some
old craft's cockpits, especially of such a howling night, when this
corner-anchored old ark rocked so furiously. On one side stood a
long, low, shelf-like table covered with cracked glass cases, filled
with dusty rarities gathered from this wide world's remotest nooks.
Projecting from the further angle of the room stands a dark-looking
den--the bar--a rude attempt at a right whale's head. Be that how it
may, there stands the vast arched bone of the whale's jaw, so wide, a
Moby Dick |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: In it I keep little squares of paper, with hair inside, and a little
picture which hung over my brother's bed when we were children, and other
things as small. I have in it a rose. Other women also have such boxes
where they keep such trifles, but no one has my rose.
When my eye is dim, and my heart grows faint, and my faith in woman
flickers, and her present is an agony to me, and her future a despair, the
scent of that dead rose, withered for twelve years, comes back to me. I
know there will be spring; as surely as the birds know it when they see
above the snow two tiny, quivering green leaves. Spring cannot fail us.
There were other flowers in the box once; a bunch of white acacia flowers,
gathered by the strong hand of a man, as we passed down a village street 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 Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: the passage, and I am never shown into a room with a mirror as with
us, and never into a chamber or bedroom.
We found Lady Charleville and her daughter with one young gentleman
with whom I chatted till dinner, and who, I found, was Sir William
Burdette, son of Sir Francis and brother of Miss Angelina Coutts. I
happened to have on the corsage of my black velvet a white moss rose
and buds, which I thought rather youthful for ME, but the old lady
had [them] on her cap. She is full of intelligence, and has always
been in the habit of drawing a great deal. . . . Very soon came in
Lord Aylmer, [who] was formerly Governor of Canada, and Lady
Colchester, daughter of Lord Ellenborough, a very pretty woman of
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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 Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: has but one son of two-and-thirty, who is not at all like our man, and
to whom he gave fifty thousand francs a year that he might marry a
minister's daughter; he wants to be made a peer like the rest of 'em.
--I never heard him mention this Maximilien. Has he a daughter? What
is this girl Clara? Besides, it is open to any adventurer to call
himself Longueville. But is not the house of Palma, Werbrust & Co.
half ruined by some speculation in Mexico or the Indies? I will clear
all this up."
"You speak a soliloquy as if you were on the stage, and seem to
account me a cipher," said the old admiral suddenly. "Don't you know
that if he is a gentleman, I have more than one bag in my hold that
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