| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Land of Footprints by Stewart Edward White: concentrated and vigorous purposefulness. His countenance might
be described as pleasing but not handsome, of a dark chocolate
brown, with the broad nose of the negro, but with a firm mouth,
high cheekbones, and a frowning intentness of brow that was very
fine. When you talked to him he looked you straight in the eye.
His own eyes were shaded by long, soft, curling lashes behind
which they looked steadily and gravely-sometimes fiercely-on
the world. He rarely smiled-never merely in understanding or for
politeness' sake-and never laughed unless there was something
really amusing. Then he chuckled from deep in his chest, the most
contagious laughter you can imagine. Often we, at the other end
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: a pause of bliss.] Dear! Do you know I was awfully afraid of being
refused!
MABEL CHILTERN. [Looking up at him.] But you never have been
refused yet by anybody, have you, Arthur? I can't imagine any one
refusing you.
LORD GORING. [After kissing her again.] Of course I'm not nearly
good enough for you, Mabel.
MABEL CHILTERN. [Nestling close to him.] I am so glad, darling. I
was afraid you were.
LORD GORING. [After some hesitation.] And I'm . . . I'm a little
over thirty.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: disturb the blaze of Trooper Peter Halket's fire, yet enough to make it
quiver. He sat alone beside it on the top of a kopje.
All about was an impenetrable darkness; not a star was visible in the black
curve over his head.
He had been travelling with a dozen men who were taking provisions of
mealies and rice to the next camp. He had been sent out to act as scout
along a low range of hills, and had lost his way. Since eight in the
morning he had wandered among long grasses, and ironstone kopjes, and
stunted bush, and had come upon no sign of human habitation, but the
remains of a burnt kraal, and a down-trampled and now uncultivated mealie
field, where a month before the Chartered Company's forces had destroyed a
|
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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: English boarder, it appeared, would like to speak with me. I
professed my willingness, and the friar ushered in a fresh, young,
little Irishman of fifty, a deacon of the Church, arrayed in strict
canonicals, and wearing on his head what, in default of knowledge,
I can only call the ecclesiastical shako. He had lived seven years
in retreat at a convent of nuns in Belgium, and now five at Our
Lady of the Snows; he never saw an English newspaper; he spoke
French imperfectly, and had he spoken it like a native, there was
not much chance of conversation where he dwelt. With this, he was
a man eminently sociable, greedy of news, and simple-minded like a
child. If I was pleased to have a guide about the monastery, he
|
