| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: you would preserve your equilibrium better."
Arrived at the upper ridge of the promontory, I saw a vast white
plain covered with morses. They were playing amongst themselves,
and what we heard were bellowings of pleasure, not of anger.
As I passed these curious animals I could examine them leisurely,
for they did not move. Their skins were thick and rugged,
of a yellowish tint, approaching to red; their hair was short
and scant. Some of them were four yards and a quarter long.
Quieter and less timid than their cousins of the north, they did not,
like them, place sentinels round the outskirts of their encampment.
After examining this city of morses, I began to think of returning.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: common interests, common ideals, and towards an emotional sympathy between
the sexes more deeply founded and more indestructible than any the world
has yet seen.
But it may be suggested, and the perception of a certain profound truth
underlies this suggestion; How is it, if there be this close reciprocity
between the lines along which the advanced and typical modern males and
females are developing, that there does exist in our modern societies, and
often among the very classes forming our typically advanced sections, so
much of pain, unrest, and sexual disco-ordination at the present day?
The reply to this pertinent suggestion is, that the disco-ordination,
struggle, and consequent suffering which undoubtedly do exist when we
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: half-pint in his hand into the bar. But when sud-
denly he sprang upon a table and continued to
dance among the glasses, the landlord interfered.
He didn't want any 'acrobat tricks in the tap-
room.' They laid their hands on him. Having
had a glass or two, Mr. Swaffer's foreigner tried
to expostulate: was ejected forcibly: got a black
eye.
"I believe he felt the hostility of his human sur-
roundings. But he was tough--tough in spirit,
too, as well as in body. Only the memory of the
Amy Foster |
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 House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: parlor. His own death, so like that former one, yet attended by
none of those suspicious circumstances, seems the stroke of God
upon him, at once a punishment for his wickedness, and making
plain the innocence of Clifford, But this flight,--it distorts
everything! He may be in concealment, near at hand. Could we
but bring him back before the discovery of the Judge's death,
the evil might be rectified,"
"We must not hide this thing a moment longer!" said Phoebe.
"It is dreadful to keep it so closely in our hearts. Clifford is
innocent. God will make it manifest! Let us throw open the doors,
and call all the neighborhood to see the truth!"
House of Seven Gables |
