| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: business, whatever it might be. And of what it might be Sir Rowland
had grounds upon which to found at least a guess. Had perhaps
Wilding acted upon some similar feelings in avoiding the duel? He
wondered; and when Richard dismissed Diana's challenge with a fatuous
laugh, it was Blake who took it up.
"You speak, ma'am," said he, "as if you knew that there were
reasons, and knew, too, what those reasons might be."
Diana looked at Ruth, as if for guidance before replying. But Ruth sat
calm and seemingly impassive, looking straight before her. She was,
indeed, indifferent how much Diana said, for in any case the matter
could not remain a secret long. Lady Horton, silent too and listening,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: second fell exactly in the same place. A shudder passed through the boy's
frame.
"Nice, eh?" said Bonaparte, peeping round into his face, speaking with a
lisp, as though to a very little child. "Nith, eh?"
But the eyes were black and lustreless, and seemed not to see him. When he
had given sixteen Bonaparte paused in his work to wipe a little drop of
blood from his whip.
"Cold, eh? What makes you shiver so? Perhaps you would like to pull up
your shirt? But I've not quite done yet."
When he had finished he wiped the whip again, and put it back in his
pocket. He cut the rope through with his penknife, and then took up the
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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 Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: He knew enough of the society into which the Hickses had drifted
to guess that, within a very short time, the hint of the
Prince's aide-de-camp would reappear in the form of a direct
proposal. Lansing himself would probably--as the one person in
the Hicks entourage with whom one could intelligibly commune-be
entrusted with the next step in the negotiations: he would be
asked, as the aide-de-camp would have said, "to feel the
ground." It was clearly part of the state policy of Teutoburg
to offer Miss Hicks, with the hand of its sovereign, an
opportunity to replenish its treasury.
What would the girl do? Lansing could not guess; yet he dimly
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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 Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: that the Messiah would be a son of David, not of a carpenter; and that
he would confirm the law, whereas this Nazarene attacked it.
Furthermore, as a still stronger argument against the pretender, it
had been promised that the Messiah should be preceded by Elias.
"But Elias has come!" Jacob answered.
"Elias! Elias!" was repeated from one end of the banqueting-hall to
the other.
In imagination, all fancied that they could see an old man, a flight
of ravens above his head, standing before an altar, which a flash of
lightning illumined, revealing the idolatrous priests that were thrown
into the torrent; and the women, sitting in the galleries, thought of
Herodias |
