| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: Moreover, they lavished a thousand cares on their scholars. Only,
when a child passed near a nun and addressed her, the nun never replied.
This rule of silence had had this effect, that throughout the
whole convent, speech had been withdrawn from human creatures,
and bestowed on inanimate objects. Now it was the church-bell
which spoke, now it was the gardener's bell. A very sonorous bell,
placed beside the portress, and which was audible throughout
the house, indicated by its varied peals, which formed a sort
of acoustic telegraph, all the actions of material life which were
to be performed, and summoned to the parlor, in case of need,
such or such an inhabitant of the house. Each person and each thing
Les Miserables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Silas Marner by George Eliot: till the next morning, that it might serve him as an introduction to
heavier matter. The old Squire was accustomed to his son's frequent
absence from home, and thought neither Dunstan's nor Wildfire's
non-appearance a matter calling for remark. Godfrey said to himself
again and again, that if he let slip this one opportunity of
confession, he might never have another; the revelation might be
made even in a more odious way than by Dunstan's malignity: _she_
might come as she had threatened to do. And then he tried to make
the scene easier to himself by rehearsal: he made up his mind how he
would pass from the admission of his weakness in letting Dunstan
have the money to the fact that Dunstan had a hold on him which he
Silas Marner |
