| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: advised him to it, they say: she'd brought most of the property,
and it was her wish that this lady should have it.'
'Humph! She'll be a fine catch for somebody.'
'She will so. She's a widow, but quite young yet, and uncommon
handsome: a fortune of her own, besides, and only one child, and
she's nursing a fine estate for him in -. There'll be lots to
speak for her! 'fraid there's no chance for uz' - (facetiously
jogging me with his elbow, as well as his companion) - 'ha, ha, ha!
No offence, sir, I hope?' - (to me). 'Ahem! I should think she'll
marry none but a nobleman myself. Look ye, sir,' resumed he,
turning to his other neighbour, and pointing past me with his
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: And that in guess they measure by thy deeds;
Then--churls--their thoughts, although their eyes were kind,
To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds:
But why thy odour matcheth not thy show,
The soil is this, that thou dost common grow.
LXX
That thou art blam'd shall not be thy defect,
For slander's mark was ever yet the fair;
The ornament of beauty is suspect,
A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.
So thou be good, slander doth but approve
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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 Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: Fleet across the grasses,
"Follow, lads and lasses!
Sing, world, sing!"
Fleet across the grasses
Flash the feet of Spring!
Idle winds deliver
Rumors through the town,
Tales of reeds that quiver,
Idle winds deliver,
Where the rapid river
Drags the willows down--
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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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: When Aunt Eliza saw them she angrily exclaimed, "Am I to see
those Uxbridges every day?"
Of the Uxbridges this much I knew--that the two brothers Uxbridge
were the lawyers of her opponents in the lawsuit which had existed
three or four years. I had never felt any interest in it, though I
knew that it was concerning a tract of ground in the city which had
belonged to my grandfather, and which had, since his day, become
very valuable. Litigation was a habit of the Huell family. So the
sight of the Uxbridge family did not agitate me as it did Aunt
Eliza.
"The sly, methodical dogs! but I shall beat Lemorne yet!"
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