| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: nothing else. The stillness shut down again. There was not a
sound.
VI
A SEA MYSTERY
In spite of his best efforts at self-control, Wilbur felt a slow,
cold clutch at his heart. That sickening, uncanny lifting of the
schooner out of the glassy water, at a time when there was not
enough wind to so much as wrinkle the surface, sent a creep of
something very like horror through all his flesh.
Again he peered over the side, down into the kelp-thickened sea.
Nothing--not a breath of air was stirring. The gray light that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: perhaps a "statuary."
He had that afternoon driven in a cart from Alfredston to the village
nearest the city in this direction, and was now walking the remaining
four miles rather from choice than from necessity, having always fancied
himself arriving thus.
The ultimate impulse to come had had a curious origin--
one more nearly related to the emotional side of him than
to the intellectual, as is often the case with young men.
One day while in lodgings at Alfredston he had gone to Marygreen
to see his old aunt, and had observed between the brass
candlesticks on her mantlepiece the photograph of a pretty
Jude the Obscure |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: temporary complaint.
Guenaud, on his part, preserved profound secrecy; wearied
with visits and questions, he answered nothing but "his
eminence is still full of youth and strength, but God wills
that which He wills, and when He has decided that man is to
be laid low, he will be laid low." These words, which he
scattered with a sort of discretion, reserve, and
preference, were commented upon earnestly by two persons, --
the king and the cardinal. Mazarin, notwithstanding the
prophecy of Guenaud, still lured himself with a hope, or
rather played his part so well, that the most cunning, when
Ten Years Later |
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 A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: "'I had it all along.'
"'You did not take the gold piece belonging to your mother?'
"'No.'
"'Will you swear it on your eternal life?'
"He was about to swear; his mother raised her eyes to him, and said:--
"'Jacques, my child, take care; do not swear if it is not true; you
can repent, you can amend; there is still time.'
"And she wept.
"'You are a this and a that,' he said; 'you have always wanted to ruin
me.'
"Cambremer turned white and said,--
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