| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: along Leith Walk, and went round the Calton Hill, where stood,
in the light of the gray dawn, the buildings of the Observatory
and Nelson's Monument. By Regent's Bridge and the North Bridge they
at last reached the lower extremity of the Canongate. The town
still lay wrapt in slumber.
Nell pointed to a large building in the center of an open space,
asking, "What great confused mass is that?"
"That confused mass, Nell, is the palace of the ancient kings
of Scotland; that is Holyrood, where many a sad scene has been enacted!
The historian can here invoke many a royal shade; from those of
the early Scottish kings to that of the unhappy Mary Stuart,
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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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: "Dose cotton!" ejaculated Mr. Baptiste, at last.
"Ah, mon Dieu!" groaned Madame Garcia, rolling her eyes
heavenwards.
"Hit will drive de fruit away!" he continued.
"Misere!" said Madame Garcia
"Hit will."
"Oui, out," said Madame Garcia. She had carefully inspected the
plantains, and seeing that they were good and wholesome, was
inclined to agree with anything Mr. Baptiste said.
He grew excited. "Yaas, dose cotton-yardmans, dose
'longsho'mans, dey go out on one strik'. Dey t'row down dey tool
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: `The manager sends me--' he began in an official tone, and stopped short.
`Good God!' he said, glaring at the wounded man.
"We two whites stood over him, and his lustrous and inquiring
glance enveloped us both. I declare it looked as though he would
presently put to us some questions in an understandable language;
but he died without uttering a sound, without moving a limb,
without twitching a muscle. Only in the very last moment, as though
in response to some sign we could not see, to some whisper we could
not hear, he frowned heavily, and that frown gave to his black
death-mask an inconeivably sombre, brooding, and menacing expression.
The lustre of inquiring glance faded swiftly into vacant glassiness.
Heart of Darkness |
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 Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: spur of the moment, to become the physician of an ailing soul.
He had determined in a flash to make the man ship's chaplain,
that Calthrop might come into close contact with other spiritual
organisms and not think too exclusively of his own.
The Rev. Mr. Calthrop thanked him with becoming gratitude and
departed to get the new holystones.
By three o'clock that afternoon, with such celerity had the work
gone forward, Mr. Watkins, the contractor, announced to Cleggett
that his task was finished, except for the removal of the rubbish
in the hold. Cleggett, going carefully over the vessel, and
examining the new parts with a brochure on the construction and
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