| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: A young woman, pretty, lively, with a harp as
elegant as herself, and both placed near a window,
cut down to the ground, and opening on a little lawn,
surrounded by shrubs in the rich foliage of summer,
was enough to catch any man's heart. The season, the scene,
the air, were all favourable to tenderness and sentiment.
Mrs. Grant and her tambour frame were not without their use:
it was all in harmony; and as everything will turn to account
when love is once set going, even the sandwich tray,
and Dr. Grant doing the honours of it, were worth looking at.
Without studying the business, however, or knowing
Mansfield Park |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: Mankind, he said, judging by their neglect of him, have never, as I think,
at all understood the power of Love. For if they had understood him they
would surely have built noble temples and altars, and offered solemn
sacrifices in his honour; but this is not done, and most certainly ought to
be done: since of all the gods he is the best friend of men, the helper
and the healer of the ills which are the great impediment to the happiness
of the race. I will try to describe his power to you, and you shall teach
the rest of the world what I am teaching you. In the first place, let me
treat of the nature of man and what has happened to it; for the original
human nature was not like the present, but different. The sexes were not
two as they are now, but originally three in number; there was man, woman,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: you to reflect that it is because of your stubbornness that
the baby suffers--and that it is your baby."
"You would not do it!" cried the girl. "You would not--
could not be so fiendishly cruel!"
"It is not I that am cruel, but you," he returned,
"for you permit a paltry sum of money to stand between
your baby and immunity from suffering."
The end of it was that Jane Clayton wrote out a cheque
of large denomination and handed it to Nikolas Rokoff,
who left her cabin with a grin of satisfaction upon his lips.
The following day the hatch was removed from Tarzan's cell,
The Beasts of Tarzan |
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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: am proud of the little part I've played. He will consider it the
greatest honour. Geoff, my boy, you had better be stirring to-
morrow bright and early about the preparations for the trip. It
would be criminal to lose a single day."
He was as flushed as Willie, the excitement keeping up the effect
of the festive dinner. For a time Renouard, silent, as if he had
not heard a word of all that babble, did not stir. But when he got
up it was to advance towards the Editor and give him such a hearty
slap on the back that the plump little man reeled in his tracks and
looked quite frightened for a moment.
"You are a heaven-born discoverer and a first-rate manager. . .
Within the Tides |
