| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: mad with joy; we drew him from his quandary by giving him the name of
our landlady and telling him to take the lobster and the crab to her
house.
"Do you earn enough to live on?" I asked the man, in order to discover
the cause of his evident penury.
"With great hardships, and always poorly," he replied. "Fishing on the
coast, when one hasn't a boat or deep-sea nets, nothing but pole and
line, is a very uncertain business. You see we have to wait for the
fish, or the shell-fish; whereas a real fisherman puts out to sea for
them. It is so hard to earn a living this way that I'm the only man in
these parts who fishes along-shore. I spend whole days without getting
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: while and rest. She tore off her clothes, with feverish fingers,
and in full enjoyment of her natural freedom, stretched her slim
figure in animal delight. Then she lay down on the sofa--to await
her victim! Edgar Caswall's life blood would more than satisfy her
for some time to come.
CHAPTER XXVIII--THE BREAKING OF THE STORM
When Lady Arabella had crept away in her usual noiseless fashion,
the two others remained for a while in their places on the turret
roof: Caswall because he had nothing to say, Mimi because she had
much to say and wished to put her thoughts in order. For quite a
while--which seemed interminable--silence reigned between them. At
Lair of the White Worm |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: jungle.
Joan, still shocked by what she had seen, walked on in front of
Sheldon, subdued and silent. At the end of half an hour she turned
to him with a wan smile and said, -
"I don't think I care to visit the head-hunters any more. It's
adventure, I know; but there is such a thing as having too much of
a good thing. Riding around the plantation will henceforth be good
enough for me, or perhaps salving another Martha; but the bushmen
of Guadalcanar need never worry for fear that I shall visit them
again. I shall have nightmares for months to come, I know I shall.
Ugh!--the horrid beasts!"
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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 Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: false window which looked upon another room, and there,
by the glimmer of a thieves' lantern, was his good friend
the Deacon in a mask. It is characteristic of the town
and the town's manners that this little episode should
have been quietly tided over, and quite a good time
elapsed before a great robbery, an escape, a Bow Street
runner, a cock-fight, an apprehension in a cupboard in
Amsterdam, and a last step into the air off his own
greatly-improved gallows drop, brought the career of
Deacon William Brodie to an end. But still, by the
mind's eye, he may be seen, a man harassed below a
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