| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: and forget'--and this is his gift--take!"
He caught hold suddenly of Lingard's hand, thrust roughly into it
the ring, and then for the first time looked round the cabin with
wondering but fearless eyes. They lingered over the semicircle of
bayonets and rested fondly on musket-racks. He grunted in
admiration.
"Ya-wa, this is strength!" he murmured as if to himself. "But it
has come too late."
"Perhaps not," cried Lingard.
"Too late," said Jaffir, "we are ten only, and at sunrise we go
out to die." He went to the cabin door and hesitated there with a
The Rescue |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: crisis in international politics, of the difficulty of
buying English tea in Paris and of the enormities of which
French servants were capable; and her views on these
subjects were enunciated with a uniformity of emphasis
implying complete unconsciousness of any difference in their
interest and importance. She always applied to the French
race the distant epithet of "those people", but she betrayed
an intimate acquaintance with many of its members, and an
encyclopaedic knowledge of the domestic habits, financial
difficulties and private complications of various persons of
social importance. Yet, as she evidently felt no
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: Comte de N., and has told him, I hear, the reasons for my leaving
him. The Comte de G. was at London. He is one of those men who
give just enough importance to making love to women like me for
it to be an agreeable pastime, and who are thus able to remain
friends with women, not hating them because they have never been
jealous of them, and he is, too, one of those grand seigneurs who
open only a part of their hearts to us, but the whole of their
purses. It was of him that I immediately thought. I joined him in
London. He received me as kindly as possible, but he was the
lover there of a woman in society, and he feared to compromise
himself if he were seen with me. He introduced me to his friends,
Camille |
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 American by Henry James: travels in Europe we should especially remember the immense
seriousness of Art. You seem to hold that if a thing amuses
you for the moment, that is all you need ask for it, and your
relish for mere amusement is also much higher than mine.
You put, however, a kind of reckless confidence into your pleasure
which at times, I confess, has seemed to me--shall I say it?--
almost cynical. Your way at any rate is not my way, and it
is unwise that we should attempt any longer to pull together.
And yet, let me add that I know there is a great deal to be said
for your way; I have felt its attraction, in your society,
very strongly. But for this I should have left you long ago.
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