| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: "Drop us somewhere handy, then," replied Smith, "and lie close in,
with your ears wide open. We may have to run for it, so don't
go far away."
From the tone of his voice I knew that the night mystery of the Thames
had claimed at least one other victim.
"Dead slow," came Ryman's order. "We'll put in to the Stone Stairs."
CHAPTER VI
A SEEMINGLY drunken voice was droning from a neighboring alleyway as Smith
lurched in hulking fashion to the door of a little shop above which,
crudely painted, were the words:
"SHEN-YAN, Barber."
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: the way, unsatisfactory, and irritating, I do know."
It looked as though he wanted to tell some story. People who lead
a solitary existence always have something in their hearts which
they are eager to talk about. In town bachelors visit the baths
and the restaurants on purpose to talk, and sometimes tell the
most interesting things to bath attendants and waiters; in the
country, as a rule, they unbosom themselves to their guests. Now
from the window we could see a grey sky, trees drenched in the
rain; in such weather we could go nowhere, and there was nothing
for us to do but to tell stories and to listen.
"I have lived at Sofino and been farming for a long time," Alehin
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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 Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: this, that the orders of the university admit no such excesses; I
therefore say, as this is the case, it is to the honour of the
whole body of the university that no encouragement is given to them
here.
As to the antiquity of the university in this town, the originals
and founders of the several colleges, their revenues, laws,
government, and governors, they are so effectually and so largely
treated of by other authors, and are so foreign to the familiar
design of these letters, that I refer my readers to Mr. Camden's
"Britannia" and the author of the "Antiquities of Cambridge," and
other such learned writers, by whom they may be fully informed.
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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 Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton: children with the Fulmer appetite--could not but be a costly
business; and while she settled details, packed them off to
school, and routed out such nondescript receptacles as the house
contained in the way of luggage, her thoughts remained fixed on
the familiar financial problem.
Yes--it was cruel to have it rear its hated head, even through
the bursting boughs of her new spring; but there it was, the
perpetual serpent in her Eden, to be bribed, fed, sent to sleep
with such scraps as she could beg, borrow or steal for it. And
she supposed it was the price that fate meant her to pay for her
blessedness, and was surer than ever that the blessedness was
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