| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: seen. His eyes went from that inaccessible glory to the village
and irrigated fields, fast sinking into the twilight, and suddenly
a wave of emotion took him, and he thanked God from the bottom of
his heart that the power of sight had been given him.
He heard a voice calling to him from out of the village.
"Yaho there, Bogota! Come hither!"
At that he stood up, smiling. He would show these people once
and for all what sight would do for a man. They would seek him,
but not find him.
"You move not, Bogota," said the voice.
He laughed noiselessly and made two stealthy steps aside from
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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 Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: A shudder I could not repress ran coldly through me at mention
of that most deadly of all the reptiles of the East.
"There's only one treatment," he continued, rolling his sleeve down again,
"and that's with a sharp knife, a match, and a broken cartridge.
I lay on my back, raving, for three days afterwards, in a forest that stank
with malaria, but I should have been lying there now if I had hesitated.
Here's the point. It was not an accident!"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that it was a deliberate attempt on my life, and I am hard upon
the tracks of the man who extracted that venom--patiently, drop by drop--
from the poison-glands of the snake, who prepared that arrow, and who caused
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: the subject matter of their writings my charge is, that while full of
far-fetched phraseology,[5] of solid wholesome sentiments, by which
the young might be trained to virtue, I see not a vestige. Speaking as
a plain man, I know that to be taught what is good by one's own nature
is best of all,[6] and next best to learn of those who really do know
some good thing rather than of those who have an art to deceive. It
may well be that I fail to express myself in subtle language,[7] nor
do I pretend to aim at subtlety; what I do aim at is to express
rightly-conceived thoughts such as may serve the need of those who
have been nobly disciplined in virtue; for it is not words and names
that give instruction, but thoughts and sentiments worthy the name.
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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 Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: a satisfying equipoise of sound; for nothing more often
disappoints the ear than a sentence solemnly and sonorously
prepared, and hastily and weakly finished. Nor should the
balance be too striking and exact, for the one rule is to be
infinitely various; to interest, to disappoint, to surprise,
and yet still to gratify; to be ever changing, as it were,
the stitch, and yet still to give the effect of an ingenious
neatness.
The conjurer juggles with two oranges, and our pleasure in
beholding him springs from this, that neither is for an
instant overlooked or sacrificed. So with the writer. His
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