| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: the gift has vanished, by means of some spear, arrow, or club.
I will never hear that chap speak after all'--and my sorrow
had a startling extravagance of emotion, even such as I had
noticed in the howling sorrow of these savages in the bush.
I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, had I been
robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life. . . . Why
do you sigh in this beastly way, somebody? Absurd? Well, absurd.
Good Lord! mustn't a man ever--Here, give me some tobacco."
. . .
There was a pause of profound stillness, then a match flared,
and Marlow's lean face appeared, worn, hollow, with downward folds
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: not physically reproduce, clever machines would be made, on which
the alien speech could be played as on a musical instrument.
The
Great Race's members were immense rugose cones ten feet high,
and with head and other organs attached to foot-thick, distensible
limbs spreading from the apexes. They spoke by the clicking or
scraping of huge paws or claws attached to the end of two of their
four limbs, and walked by the expansion and contraction of a viscous
layer attached to their vast, ten-foot bases.
When the captive
mind's amazement and resentment had worn off, and when - assuming
Shadow out of Time |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: this engagement is quite out of the question. I am Miss Cardew's
guardian, and she cannot marry without my consent until she comes
of age. That consent I absolutely decline to give.
LADY BRACKNELL. Upon what grounds may I ask? Algernon is an
extremely, I may almost say an ostentatiously, eligible young man.
He has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire?
JACK. It pains me very much to have to speak frankly to you, Lady
Bracknell, about your nephew, but the fact is that I do not approve
at all of his moral character. I suspect him of being untruthful.
[ALGERNON and CECILY look at him in indignant amazement.]
LADY BRACKNELL. Untruthful! My nephew Algernon? Impossible! He
|
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 The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: time the most precious? To economize time is, consequently, to become
wealthy. Now, is there anything that consumes so much time as those
anxieties which I call 'pot-boiling'?--a vulgar expression, but it
puts the whole question in a nutshell. For instance, what can eat up
more time than the inability to give proper security to persons from
whom you seek to borrow money when, poor at the moment, you are
nevertheless rich in hope?"
"Money,--yes, that's right," said Margaritis.
"Well, Monsieur, I am sent into the departments by a company of
bankers and capitalists, who have apprehended the enormous waste which
rising men of talent are thus making of time, and, consequently, of
|
