| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: The stranger worked alone, and he had resumed his usual life, never
appearing at meals, sleeping under the trees in the plateau, never mingling
with his companions. It really seemed as if the society of those who had
saved him was insupportable to him!
"But then," observed Pencroft, "why did he entreat the help of his
fellow-creatures? Why did he throw that paper into the sea?"
"He will tell us why," invariably replied Cyrus Harding.
"When?"
"Perhaps sooner than you think, Pencroft."
And, indeed, the day of confession was near.
On the 10th of December, a week after his return to Granite House,
The Mysterious Island |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: the estuary, this centre of memories, is marked upon the steely
gray expanse of the waters by a lightship painted red that, from a
couple of miles off, looks like a cheap and bizarre little toy. I
remember how, on coming up the river for the first time, I was
surprised at the smallness of that vivid object - a tiny warm speck
of crimson lost in an immensity of gray tones. I was startled, as
if of necessity the principal beacon in the water-way of the
greatest town on earth should have presented imposing proportions.
And, behold! the brown sprit-sail of a barge hid it entirely from
my view.
Coming in from the eastward, the bright colouring of the lightship
The Mirror of the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: occurrence in its tranquil existence had been the portentous,
meteor-like apparition of the sham Comtesse de l'Ambermesnil. But
the catastrophes of this great day were to cast all previous
events into the shade, and supply an inexhaustible topic of
conversation for Mme. Vauquer and her boarders so long as she
lived.
In the first place, Goriot and Eugene de Rastignac both slept
till close upon eleven o'clock. Mme. Vauquer, who came home about
midnight from the Gaite, lay a-bed till half-past ten.
Christophe, after a prolonged slumber (he had finished Vautrin's
first bottle of wine), was behindhand with his work, but Poiret
Father Goriot |
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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: face of the strong, broad-shouldered, ugly woman. Her daughter,
the child who had been sitting on the stove and looked so
apathetic, suddenly broke into loud weeping.
"What are you howling for, you plague?" Fyokla, a handsome woman,
also strong and broad-shouldered, shouted to her. "He won't kill
you, no fear!"
From his old father Nikolay learned that Marya was afraid to live
in the forest with Kiryak, and that when he was drunk he always
came for her, made a row, and beat her mercilessly.
"Ma-arya!" the shout sounded close to the door.
"Protect me, for Christ's sake, good people!" faltered Marya,
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