| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: could take refuge in an appeal. Nowadays our mania for equality"--he
dared not say FOR LEGALITY, as a poetic orator in the Chamber
courageously admitted a short while since--"is the death of us."
This noble magistrate knew all the fascination and the miseries of an
illicit attachment. Esther and Lucien, as we have seen, had taken the
rooms where the Comte de Granville had lived secretly on connubial
terms with Mademoiselle de Bellefeuille, and whence she had fled one
day, lured away by a villain. (See A Double Marriage.)
At the very moment when the public prosecutor was saying to himself,
"Camusot is sure to have done something silly," the examining
magistrate knocked twice at the door of his room.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: last at my return, and the rest as their situation demands.
As I came down from Kingston, in my last circuit, by the south bank
of the Thames, on the Surrey side of the river; so I go up to
Hampton Court now on the north bank, and on the Middlesex side,
which I mention, because, as the sides of the country bordering on
the river lie parallel, so the beauty of the country, the pleasant
situations, the glory of innumerable fine buildings (noblemen's and
gentlemen's houses, and citizens' retreats), are so equal a match
to what I had described on the other side that one knows not which
to give the preference to: but as I must speak of them again, when
I come to write of the county of Middlesex, which I have now
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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 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No,
sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what
this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that
hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and
not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the
scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be
there in twenty minutes."
It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through
the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn,
found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A
lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
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 Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: de queen's chile, en put de queen's chile's clo'es on her own chile,
en den lef' her own chile layin' aroun', en tuck en toted de queen's
chile home to de nigger quarter, en nobody ever foun' it out,
en her chile was de king bimeby, en sole de queen's chile down de
river one time when dey had to settle up de estate. Dah, now--de preacher
said it his own self, en it ain't no sin, 'ca'se white folks done it.
DEY done it--yes, DEY done it; en not on'y jis' common white folks nuther,
but de biggest quality dey is in de whole bilin'. _Oh_, I's _so_ glad I
'member 'bout dat!"
She got lighthearted and happy, and went to the cradles, and spent what
was left of the night "practicing." She would give her own child a
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