| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: them redder, and Hortense would have added `a soupcon of rouge',
if Meg had not rebelled. They laced her into a sky-blue dress,
which was so tight she could hardly breathe and so low in the
neck that modest Meg blushed at herself in the mirror. A set
of silver filagree was added, bracelets, necklace, brooch, and
even earrings, for Hortense tied them on with a bit of pink
silk which did not show. A cluster of tea-rose buds at the
bosom and a ruche, reconciled Meg to the display of her pretty,
white shoulders, and a pair of high-heeled silk boots satisfied
the last wish of her heart. A lace handkerchief, a plumy fan,
and a bouquet in a shoulder holder finished her off, and Miss
Little Women |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: remember all that--and Cambremer, too," he added, after a pause. "By
the time Jacques Cambremer was fifteen or sixteen years of age he had
come to be--what shall I say?--a shark. He amused himself at Guerande,
and was after the girls at Savenay. Then he wanted money. He robbed
his mother, who didn't dare say a word to his father. Cambremer was an
honest man who'd have tramped fifty miles to return two sous that any
one had overpaid him on a bill. At last, one day the mother was robbed
of everything. During one of his father's fishing-trips Jacques
carried off all she had, furniture, pots and pans, sheets, linen,
everything; he sold it to go to Nantes and carry on his capers there.
The poor mother wept day and night. This time it couldn't be hidden
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela: wind. The red rooster suddenly broke, tossed with his
legs to heaven outside the chalk lines. His vermilion eyes
closed slowly, revealing eyelids of pink coral; his tangled
feathers quivered and shook convulsively amid a pool of
blood.
Valderrama, who could not repress a gesture of violent
indignation, began to play. With the first melancholy
strains of the tune, his anger disappeared. His eyes
gleamed with the light of madness. His glance strayed
over the square, the tumbled kiosk, the old adobe houses,
over the mountains in the background, and over the sky,
The Underdogs |
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 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: finish it in the same style. I am interested in every character
you have mentioned, more or less.'
'The clock is on the stroke of eleven, sir.'
'No matter - I'm not accustomed to go to bed in the long hours.
One or two is early enough for a person who lies till ten.'
'You shouldn't lie till ten. There's the very prime of the morning
gone long before that time. A person who has not done one-half his
day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half
undone.'
'Nevertheless, Mrs. Dean, resume your chair; because to-morrow I
intend lengthening the night till afternoon. I prognosticate for
Wuthering Heights |
