| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: a gale. The Judea, hove to, wallowed on the Atlantic
like an old candlebox. It blew day after day: it blew
with spite, without interval, without mercy, without rest.
The world was nothing but an immensity of great foam-
ing waves rushing at us, under a sky low enough to
touch with the hand and dirty like a smoked ceiling. In
the stormy space surrounding us there was as much flying
spray as air. Day after day and night after night there
was nothing round the ship but the howl of the wind,
the tumult of the sea, the noise of water pouring over
her deck. There was no rest for her and no rest for us.
Youth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: upon all attempts of that kind as an invasion of his province. He
has been indeed so wise to make no objection against the truth of
my predictions, except in one single point, relating to himself:
And to demonstrate how much men are blinded by their own
partiality, I do solemnly assure the reader, that he is the only
person from whom I ever heard that objection offered; which
consideration alone, I think, will take off all its weight.
With my utmost endeavours, I have not been able to trace above
two objections ever made against the truth of my last year's
prophecies: The first was of a French man, who was pleased to
publish to the world, that the Cardinal de Noailles was still
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