| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: but honest customers.
With hands that did not tremble, the dealer busied himself about
his customer, listening all the while to sounds in the street in
the hope that his tete-e-tete with the murderer would soon be over.
But in spite of all his natural anxiety, the old man's sharp eyes
took cognizance of various things, one of which was that the man
whom he was helping to dress in his new clothes did not have the
watch which was described in the police notice. This fact, however,
did not make the old man's heart any lighter, for the purse mended
with yellow thread was too clearly the one stolen from the murdered
man found in the quiet street in Hietzing.
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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 People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: shaft far back. His warriors, supercilious smiles upon their
faces, stood silently watching him. His bow was the longest
and the heaviest among them all. A mighty man indeed must he
be to bend it; yet Al-tan drew the shaft back until the stone
point touched his left forefinger, and he did it with
consummate ease. Then he raised the shaft to the level of
his right eye, held it there for an instant and released it.
When the arrow stopped, half its length protruded from the
opposite side of a six-inch tree fifty feet away. Al-tan and
his warriors turned toward me with expressions of immense
satisfaction upon their faces, and then, apparently for Ajor's
The People That Time Forgot |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: confusion, the clergyman, and some elder and graver persons,
labouring apparently to keep the peace, while the hotter spirits
on both sides brandished their weapons. But now, the period of
the brief space during which the soothsayer, as he pretended, was
permitted to exhibit his art, was arrived. The fumes again mixed
together, and dissolved gradually from observation; the vaults
and columns of the church rolled asunder, and disappeared; and
the front of the mirror reflected nothing save the blazing
torches and the melancholy apparatus placed on the altar or table
before it.
The doctor led the ladies, who greatly required his support, into
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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 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: Amy read him.
"This will be a regularly merry Christmas to me, with presents
in the morning, you and letters in the afternoon, and a party at
night," said Amy, as they alighted among the ruins of the old fort,
and a flock of splendid peacocks came trooping about them, tamely
waiting to be fed. While Amy stood laughing on the bank above him
as she scattered crumbs to the brilliant birds, Laurie looked at her
as she had looked at him, with a natural curiosity to see what
changes time and absence had wrought. He found nothing to perplex
or disappoint, much to admire and approve, for overlooking a few
little affectations of speech and manner, she was as sprightly and
Little Women |
