| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: I had refused to give up the smallest scrap out of that package,
and I took the same attitude with the spectacled man.
He became darkly menacing at last, and with much heat argued that
the Company had the right to every bit of information about its
`territories.' And said he, `Mr. Kurtz's knowledge of unexplored
regions must have been necessarily extensive and peculiar--
owing to his great abilities and to the deplorable circumstances
in which he had been placed: therefore--' I assured him
Mr. Kurtz's knowledge, however extensive, did not bear upon
the problems of commerce or administration. He invoked then the name
of science. `It would be an incalculable loss if,' etc., etc.
Heart of Darkness |
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 Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: voice, shifted from ordinary civil talk into a stream of insult.
"My dear Henry, it is yours to play," he had been saying, and now
continued: "It is a very strange thing how, even in so small a
matter as a game of cards, you display your rusticity. You play,
Jacob, like a bonnet laird, or a sailor in a tavern. The same
dulness, the same petty greed, CETTE LENTEUR D'HEBETE QUI ME FAIT
RAGER; it is strange I should have such a brother. Even Square-
toes has a certain vivacity when his stake is imperilled; but the
dreariness of a game with you I positively lack language to
depict."
Mr. Henry continued to look at his cards, as though very maturely
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