| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: "We aren't indeed! There's nothing of a boy's tale in this.
But there's nothing else for it. I want no more.
You don't suppose I am afraid of what can be done to me?
Prison or gallows or whatever they may please.
But you don't see me coming back to explain such things
to an old fellow in a wig and twelve respectable tradesmen,
do you? What can they know whether I am guilty or not--
or of WHAT I am guilty, either? That's my affair.
What does the Bible say? `Driven off the face of the earth.'
Very well, I am off the face of the earth now. As I came
at night so I shall go."
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: had struck three the moon shone in my eyes, but I turned over
without rising to pull down the shade. Then came the steady rattling
at the back door.
I lay still and somewhat dazed, but before
long heard West’s rap on my door. He was clad in dressing-gown
and slippers, and had in his hands a revolver and an electric
flashlight. From the revolver I knew that he was thinking more
of the crazed Italian than of the police.
"We’d better both
go," he whispered. "It wouldn’t do not to answer it anyway, and
it may be a patient -- it would be like one of those fools to
Herbert West: Reanimator |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: of the fiery lake has burst the side of the great slag-cup, and
rushed forth between two cliffs of clink-stone across the downs, in
a clanging stream of fire, damming up rivulets, and blasting its
path through forests, far away toward the valley of the Moselle -
the sight of an object for which was forgotten for the moment that
battle-field of the Titans at our feet, and the glorious panorama,
Hundsruck and Taunus, Siebengebirge and Ardennes, and all the
crater peaks around; and which was - smile not, reader - our first
yellow foxglove.
But what is even this to the delight of finding a new species? - of
rescuing (as it seems to you) one more thought of the Divine mind
|
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 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: as there is reason to fear that the performance would reflect no
credit on either."
"But if I do not take your likeness now, I may never have
another opportunity."
"I would by no means suspend any pleasure of yours," he coldly
replied. She said no more, and they went down the other dance
and parted in silence; and on each side dissatisfied, though not to
an equal degree, for in Darcy's breast there was a tolerable
powerful feeling towards her, which soon procured her pardon,
and directed all his anger against another.
They had not long separated, when Miss Bingley came towards
Pride and Prejudice |
