| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: the bared identity was too hideous as HIS, and his glare was the
passion of his protest. The face, THAT face, Spencer Brydon's? -
he searched it still, but looking away from it in dismay and
denial, falling straight from his height of sublimity. It was
unknown, inconceivable, awful, disconnected from any possibility! -
He had been "sold," he inwardly moaned, stalking such game as this:
the presence before him was a presence, the horror within him a
horror, but the waste of his nights had been only grotesque and the
success of his adventure an irony. Such an identity fitted his at
NO point, made its alternative monstrous. A thousand times yes, as
it came upon him nearer now, the face was the face of a stranger.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tanach: Numbers 19: 7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even.
Numbers 19: 8 And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even.
Numbers 19: 9 And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of sprinkling; it is a purification from sin.
Numbers 19: 10 And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even; and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for a statute for ever.
Numbers 19: 11 He that toucheth the dead, even any man's dead body, shall be unclean seven days;
Numbers 19: 12 the same shall purify himself therewith on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall be clean; but if he purify not himself the third day and the seventh day, he shall not be clean.
Numbers 19: 13 Whosoever toucheth the dead, even the body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself--he hath defiled the tabernacle of the LORD--that soul shall be cut off from Israel; because the water of sprinkling was not dashed against him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him.
The Tanach |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: And, of course, this could not go on forever, for the motive of
fear alone is not sufficient to subdue the sexual urge in a full-
blooded young man.
The affair with Lizette might have continued much longer had it
not been for the fact that his father died. He died quite
suddenly, while George was away on a trip. The son came back to
console his broken-hearted mother, and in the two week they spent
in the country together the mother broached a plan to him. The
last wish of the dying man had been that his son should be fixed
in life. In the midst of his intense suffering he had been able
to think about the matter, and had named the girl whom he wished
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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 My Antonia by Willa Cather: from his mother or father.
Wick Cutter and his wife had gone on living in the house that
Antonia and I knew so well, and in the way we knew so well.
They grew to be very old people. He shrivelled up,
Antonia said, until he looked like a little old yellow monkey,
for his beard and his fringe of hair never changed colour.
Mrs. Cutter remained flushed and wild-eyed as we had known her,
but as the years passed she became afflicted with a shaking palsy
which made her nervous nod continuous instead of occasional.
Her hands were so uncertain that she could no longer disfigure china,
poor woman! As the couple grew older, they quarrelled more and
My Antonia |
