| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: I can sleep. The car in front of mine is chock full of Chinese.
MONDAY. - What it is to be ill in an emigrant train let those
declare who know. I slept none till late in the morning, overcome
with laudanum, of which I had luckily a little bottle. All to-day
I have eaten nothing, and only drunk two cups of tea, for each of
which, on the pretext that the one was breakfast, and the other
dinner, I was charged fifty cents. Our journey is through ghostly
deserts, sage brush and alkali, and rocks, without form or colour,
a sad corner of the world. I confess I am not jolly, but mighty
calm, in my distresses. My illness is a subject of great mirth to
some of my fellow-travellers, and I smile rather sickly at their
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: interesting girl who, hanging on his arm with filial kindness,
now called him to admire the size of some ancient oak, and now
the unexpected turn where the path, developing its maze from glen
or dingle, suddenly reached an eminence commanding an extensive
view of the plains beneath them, and then gradually glided away
from the prospect to lose itself among rocks and thickets, and
guide to scenes of deeper seclusion.
It was when pausing on one of those points of extensive and
commanding view that Lucy told her father they were close by the
cottage of her blind protegee; and on turning from the little
hill, a path which led around it, worn by the daily steps of the
The Bride of Lammermoor |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: is in the self that he brings to God, and there is no reason why a
knowledge of evil ways should not determine the path of duty. No
one can better devise protections against vices than those who have
practised them; none know temptations better than those who have
fallen. If a man has followed an evil trade, it becomes him to use
his knowledge of the tricks of that trade to help end it. He knows
the charities it may claim and the remedies it needs. . . .
A very interesting case to discuss in relation to this question of
adjustment is that of the barrister. A practising barrister under
contemporary conditions does indeed give most typically the
opportunity for examining the relation of an ordinary self-
|
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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: but he swore that no beast had at any time escaped from its cage.
Those who found the body noted a trail of blood leading to the
receiving tomb, where a small pool of red lay on the concrete
just outside the gate. A fainter trail led away toward the woods,
but it soon gave out.
The next night devils danced on the roofs
of Arkham, and unnatural madness howled in the wind. Through the
fevered town had crept a curse which some said was greater than
the plague, and which some whispered was the embodied daemon-soul
of the plague itself. Eight houses were entered by a nameless
thing which strewed red death in its wake -- in all, seventeen
Herbert West: Reanimator |
