| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Major's wife the suggestion that Mr. Chichele was the victim of a
hopeless attachment. Mrs. Harbottle made no such mistake; she saw
simply, I imagine, the beginnings of her own hunger and thirst in
him, looking back as she told us across a decade of dusty sunsets to
remember them. The decade was there, close to the memory of all of
us; we put, from Judy herself downward, an absurd amount of
confidence in it.
She looked so well the night she met him. It was English mail day;
she depended a great deal upon her letters, and I suppose somebody
had written her a word that brought her that happy, still excitement
that is the inner mystery of words. He went straight to her with
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Children of the Night by Edwin Arlington Robinson: The chains themselves were enough to lead her
In love's despite to break them. . . . Sinners
And saints -- I say -- are rocked in the cradle,
But never are known till the will within them
Speaks in its own good time. So I foster
Even to-night for the woman who wronged me,
Nothing of hate, nor of love, but a feeling
Of still regret; for the man -- But hear me,
And judge for yourself: --
For a time the seasons
Changed and passed in a sweet succession
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: Two great inventive geniuses we may see dimly through the abysses of
the past, both of whom must have become in their time great chiefs,
founders of mighty aristocracies--it may be, worshipped after their
death as gods.
The first, who seems to have existed after the age in which the
black race colonised Australia, must have been surely a man worthy
to hold rank with our Brindleys, Watts, and Stephensons. For he
invented (and mind, one man must have invented the thing first, and
by the very nature of it, invented it all at once) an instrument so
singular, unexpected, unlike anything to be seen in nature, that I
wonder it has not been called, like the plough, the olive, or the
|
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 Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: "No, no," I repeated, "I shall not speak. He would insist upon going;
nothing on earth could stop him. His imagination is a volcano, and to
do that which other geologists have never done he would risk his
life. I will preserve silence. I will keep the secret which mere
chance has revealed to me. To discover it, would be to kill Professor
Liedenbrock! Let him find it out himself if he can. I will never have
it laid to my door that I led him to his destruction."
Having formed this resolution, I folded my arms and waited. But I had
not reckoned upon one little incident which turned up a few hours
after.
When our good Martha wanted to go to Market, she found the door
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
