| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: power, if in favor, may dare anything, and if out of favor is little
likely to be forgiven." . . . "Our fathers had to unite the thirteen
States; here they have unity enough and run no risk but from the
excess of it. My hopes are not less than they were, but all that
France needs may not come at once. We were fourteen years in
changing our confederation into a union, perhaps France cannot be
expected to jump at once into perfect legislation or perfect forms.
Crude ideas are afloat, but as to Communism, it is already exploded,
or will be brushed away from legislative power as soon as the
National Assembly meets, though the question of ameliorating the
condition of the laboring class is more and more engaging the public
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: possesses the personal Charms of her unhappy Mother! May she
inherit from her Father all his mental ones! Lesley is at
present but five and twenty, and has already given himself up to
melancholy and Despair; what a difference between him and his
Father! Sir George is 57 and still remains the Beau, the flighty
stripling, the gay Lad, and sprightly Youngster, that his Son was
really about five years back, and that HE has affected to appear
ever since my remembrance. While our father is fluttering about
the streets of London, gay, dissipated, and Thoughtless at the
age of 57, Matilda and I continue secluded from Mankind in our
old and Mouldering Castle, which is situated two miles from Perth
Love and Friendship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: "I feel
Only sad, very sad to the soul," she said, "far,
Far too sad for resentment."
"Yet stand as you are
One moment," he murmur'd. "I think, could I gaze
Thus awhile on your face, the old innocent days
Would come back upon me, and this scorching heart
Free itself in hot tears. Do not, do not depart
Thus, Lucile! stay one moment. I know why you shrink,
Why you shudder; I read in your face what you think.
Do not speak to me of it. And yet, if you will,
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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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: passing in her brain, as right or wrong. Phillotson was not really thinking
of the arithmetic at all, but of her, in a novel way which somehow seemed
strange to him as preceptor. Perhaps she knew that he was thinking of
her thus.
For a few weeks their work had gone on with a monotony which in
itself was a delight to him. Then it happened that the children
were to be taken to Christminster to see an itinerant exhibition,
in the shape of a model of Jerusalem, to which schools were
admitted at a penny a head in the interests of education.
They marched along the road two and two, she beside her
class with her simple cotton sunshade, her little thumb
Jude the Obscure |
