| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: And how, how rare and strange it is, to find
In a life composed so much, so much of odds and ends,
(For indeed I do not love it ... you knew? you are not blind!
How keen you are!)
To find a friend who has these qualities,
Who has, and gives
Those qualities upon which friendship lives.
How much it means that I say this to you--
Without these friendships--life, what cauchemar!"
Among the windings of the violins
And the ariettes
Prufrock/Other Observations |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: it is not in the habit of young girls to make, or even to
know how to make; but her apparent unconsciousness of the
fact seemed rather to reflect on her past associates than on
herself.
When the second act was over, Darrow suggested their taking
a turn in the foyer; and seated on one of its cramped
red velvet sofas they watched the crowd surge up and down in
a glare of lights and gilding. Then, as she complained of
the heat, he led her through the press to the congested
cafe at the foot of the stairs, where orangeades were
thrust at them between the shoulders of packed
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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: One day he was leaning on the railing of the engine-room,
and was observing the engine, when a sudden pitch of the steamer
threw the screw out of the water. The steam came hissing out
of the valves; and this made Passepartout indignant.
"The valves are not sufficiently charged!" he exclaimed. "We are
not going. Oh, these English! If this was an American craft,
we should blow up, perhaps, but we should at all events go faster!"
Chapter XVIII
IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG, PASSEPARTOUT, AND FIX GO EACH ABOUT HIS BUSINESS
The weather was bad during the latter days of the voyage.
The wind, obstinately remaining in the north-west, blew a gale,
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 When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: drew nearer I perceived that it was more like a ballet-dancer
whirling round and round upon her toes, or rather all the
ballet-dancers in the world rolled into one and then multiplied a
million times in size. No, it was like a mushroom with two
stalks, one above and one below, or a huge top with a point on
which it spun, a swelling belly and another point above. But what
a top! It must have been two thousand feet high, if it was an
inch, and its circumference who could measure?
On it came, dancing, swaying and spinning at a rate
inconceivable, so that it looked like a gigantic wheel of fire.
Yet it was not fire that clothed it but rather some
When the World Shook |
