| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: Whatever might be its effect, however, she must stand
the brunt of it again that very day.
The first regular rehearsal of the three first acts
was certainly to take place in the evening: Mrs. Grant
and the Crawfords were engaged to return for that purpose
as soon as they could after dinner; and every one concerned
was looking forward with eagerness. There seemed
a general diffusion of cheerfulness on the occasion.
Tom was enjoying such an advance towards the end;
Edmund was in spirits from the morning's rehearsal,
and little vexations seemed everywhere smoothed away.
Mansfield Park |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: will watch by you and receive your parting words. I will dig a
grave here by the rock, in which, if my weakness overcome me, we
will rest together; or, if Heaven gives me strength, I will seek
my way home."
"In the cities and wherever men dwell," replied the other, "they
bury their dead in the earth; they hide them from the sight of
the living; but here, where no step may pass perhaps for a
hundred years, wherefore should I not rest beneath the open sky,
covered only by the oak leaves when the autumn winds shall strew
them? And for a monument, here is this gray rock, on which my
dying hand shall carve the name of Roger Malvin, and the
Mosses From An Old Manse |
