| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: events of the year at home and abroad; not daring to propose a
hunting-match, till Gadbury or he have fixed the weather.
I will allow either of the two I have mentioned, or any other of
the fraternity, to be not only astrologers, but conjurers too, if
I do not produce a hundred instances in all their almanacks, to
convince any reasonable man, that they do not so much as
understand common grammar and syntax; that they are not able to
spell any word out of the usual road, nor even in their prefaces
write common sense or intelligible English. Then for their
observations and predictions, they are such as will equally suit
any age or country in the world. "This month a certain great
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: so was Captain H. C. Jorgenson, and the sextant case was all that
was left of them. Old Jorgenson, gaunt and mute, would turn up at
meal times on board any trading vessel in the Roads, and the
stewards --Chinamen or mulattos--would sulkily put on an extra
plate without waiting for orders. When the seamen traders
foregathered noisily round a glittering cluster of bottles and
glasses on a lighted verandah, old Jorgenson would emerge up the
stairs as if from a dark sea, and, stepping up with a kind of
tottering jauntiness, would help himself in the first tumbler to
hand.
"I drink to you all. No--no chair."
The Rescue |
