| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: condemned myself, against Madame Firmiani's advice, to pay three per
cent interest. But all I had did not suffice to cover the full amount.
We were lovers enough for her to offer, and me to accept, her
savings--"
"What! besides her other virtues does that adorable woman lay by
money?" cried his uncle.
"Don't laugh at her, uncle; her position has obliged her to be very
careful. Her husband went to Greece in 1820 and died there three years
later. It has been impossible, up to the present time, to get legal
proofs of his death, or obtain the will which he made leaving his
whole property to his wife. These papers were either lost or stolen,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: inflict, to every elegant Enjoyment that Money could purchase--.
Louisa was naturally ill-tempered and Cunning; but she had been
taught to disguise her real Disposition, under the appearance of
insinuating Sweetness, by a father who but too well knew, that to
be married, would be the only chance she would have of not being
starved, and who flattered himself that with such an extroidinary
share of personal beauty, joined to a gentleness of Manners, and
an engaging address, she might stand a good chance of pleasing
some young Man who might afford to marry a girl without a
Shilling. Louisa perfectly entered into her father's schemes and
was determined to forward them with all her care and attention.
Love and Friendship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: The friar approached.
"Let me see this friar," said the sheriff: "if he be the friar
of the bridge, I had as lief have the devil in Nottingham;
but he shall find me too much for him here."
"The friar of the bridge," said Little John, "as you very
well know, sheriff, was father Michael of Rubygill Abbey,
and you may easily see that this is not the man."
"I see it," said the sheriff; "and God be thanked for his absence."
Young Gamwell stood at the foot of the ladder. The friar approached him,
opened his book, groaned, turned up the whites of his eyes,
tossed up his arms in the air, and said "Dominus vobiscum."
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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 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: left my master. I was hateful in my own eyes. Still I could not
turn, nor retrace one step. God must have led me on. As to my own
will or conscience, impassioned grief had trampled one and stifled
the other. I was weeping wildly as I walked along my solitary way:
fast, fast I went like one delirious. A weakness, beginning
inwardly, extending to the limbs, seized me, and I fell: I lay on
the ground some minutes, pressing my face to the wet turf. I had
some fear--or hope--that here I should die: but I was soon up;
crawling forwards on my hands and knees, and then again raised to my
feet--as eager and as determined as ever to reach the road.
When I got there, I was forced to sit to rest me under the hedge;
Jane Eyre |
