| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: And he had written it, too. I've seen it. I've read it.
It was eloquent, vibrating with eloquence, but too high-strung,
I think. Seventeen pages of close writing he had found time for!
But this must have been before his--let us say--nerves, went wrong,
and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending
with unspeakable rites, which--as far as I reluctantly gathered
from what I heard at various times--were offered up to him--
do you understand?--to Mr. Kurtz himself. But it was a
beautiful piece of writing. The opening paragraph, however,
in the light of later information, strikes me now as ominous.
He began with the argument that we whites, from the point
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: them--jumped them on her knee--quite rightly, too. At that moment she
noticed Casimir's letter, crumpled up on the floor--the smile faded.
Staring at the letter she began braiding her hair--a dull feeling of rage
crept through her--she seemed to be braiding it into her brain, and binding
it, tightly, above her head...Of course that had been the mistake all
along. What had? Oh, Casimir's frightful seriousness. If she had been
happy when they first met she never would have looked at him--but they had
been like two patients in the same hospital ward--each finding comfort in
the sickness of the other--sweet foundation for a love episode! Misfortune
had knocked their heads together: they had looked at each other, stunned
with the conflict and sympathised..."I wish I could step outside the whole
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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 The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: They came into a kind of suburb, where there were many small
cottages,
with plots of flowers, very lowly, but bright and fragrant.
Finally they reached an open field, bare and lonely-looking.
There were two or three little bushes in it, without flowers,
and the grass was sparse and thin. In the center of the field
was a tiny hut, hardly big enough for a shepherd's shelter.
It looked as if it had been built of discarded things, scraps and
fragments of other buildings, put together with care and pains,
by some one who had tried to make the most of cast-off material.
There was something pitiful and shamefaced about the hut.
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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 The Sportsman by Xenophon: following the quarry without interruption, while cultivated land,
owing to the number of cross roads and beaten paths, presents
opportunities for neither. Moreover, quite apart from finding a hare,
it is an excellent thing to take your dogs on to rough ground. It is
there they will become sound of foot, and in general the benefit to
their physique in working over such ground will amply repay you.[26]
[25] Or, "pretty often, and less frequently over."
[26] Lit. "they must be benefited in their bodies generally by working
over such ground."
They should be taken out in summer till mid-day; in winter from
sunrise to sundown; in autumn any time except mid-day; and in spring
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