| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: shrink--in perspective until he was only a very small shabby
little man in a dirty back street, sending off a few hundred
bottles of rubbish to foolish buyers. The great buildings on
the right of us, the Inns and the School Board place--as it was
then--Somerset House, the big hotels, the great bridges,
Westminster's outlines ahead, had an effect of grey largeness
that reduced him to the proportions of a busy black beetle in a
crack in the floor.
And then my eye caught the advertisements on the south side of
"Sorber's Food," of "Cracknell's Ferric Wine," very bright and
prosperous signs, illuminated at night, and I realised how
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: entreated his foes."
Again said Ioasaph, "Why, O king, hast thou been kindled to
wrath? Art thou grieved that I have gained such bliss? Why,
what father was ever seen to be sorrowful in the prosperity of
his son? Would not such an one be called an enemy rather than a
father? Therefore will I no more call thee my father, but will
withdraw from thee, as a man fleeth from a snake, if I know that
thou grudgest me my salvation, and with violent hand forcest me
to destruction. If thou wilt force me, and play the tyrant, as
thou hast threatened, be assured that thou shalt gain nought
thereby save to exchange the name of father for that of tyrant
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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 Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: when he learned that Phileas Fogg had not made his appearance in Calcutta
may be imagined. He made up his mind that the robber had stopped
somewhere on the route and taken refuge in the southern provinces.
For twenty-four hours Fix watched the station with feverish anxiety;
at last he was rewarded by seeing Mr. Fogg and Passepartout arrive,
accompanied by a young woman, whose presence he was wholly at a loss
to explain. He hastened for a policeman; and this was how the party came
to be arrested and brought before Judge Obadiah.
Had Passepartout been a little less preoccupied, he would have
espied the detective ensconced in a corner of the court-room,
watching the proceedings with an interest easily understood;
Around the World in 80 Days |
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 Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: less, for he has no confidence in himself, and with a growing sense of
the cost of happiness comes a conviction that the woman he loves
cannot easily be won; perhaps, too, he is giving himself up too
entirely to his own pleasure, and fears that he can give none; and
when, for his misfortune, his idol inspires him with awe, he worships
in secret and afar, and unless his love is guessed, it dies away. Then
it often happens that one of these dead early loves lingers on, bright
with illusions in many a young heart. What man is there but keeps
within him these virgin memories that grow fairer every time they rise
before him, memories that hold up to him the ideal of perfect bliss?
Such recollections are like children who die in the flower of
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