| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: anything so imbecile as her mother? After you had all left
me just now, I could not sit still for thinking of it.
It seemed too pitiful, not even to attempt to save her.
I ordered the carriage and put on my bonnet, and came here
as quickly as possible. Thank Heaven I have found you!"
"What do you propose to do with us?" asked Winterbourne, smiling.
"To ask her to get in, to drive her about here for half an hour,
so that the world may see she is not running absolutely wild,
and then to take her safely home."
"I don't think it's a very happy thought," said Winterbourne;
"but you can try."
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: as I say, to the very edge of the fair.
In like manner great quantities of heavy goods, and the hops among
the rest, are sent from the fair to Lynn by water, and shipped
there for the Humber, to Hull, York, etc., and for Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, and by Newcastle, even to Scotland itself. Now as there is
still no planting of hops in the north, though a great consumption,
and the consumption increasing daily, this, says my friend, is one
reason why at Stourbridge fair there is so great a demand for the
hops. He added, that besides this, there were very few hops, if
any worth naming, growing in all the counties even on this side
Trent, which were above forty miles from London; those counties
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: come to tell me that the patent is signed.
Good-bye for a short time!
XXXV
THE SAME TO THE SAME
MARSEILLES, July.
I am ashamed to think how my sudden flight will have taken you by
surprise. But since I am above all honest, and since I love you not
one bit the less, I shall tell you the truth in four words: I am
horribly jealous!
Felipe's eyes were too often on you. You used to have little talks
together at the foot of your rock, which were a torture to me; and I
|
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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: there myself, but a fellow who was told me they made the niggers jump down
from the tree and hang themselves; one fellow wouldn't bally jump, till
they gave him a charge of buckshot in the back: and then he caught hold of
a branch with his hands and they had to shoot 'em loose. He didn't like
hanging. I don't know if it's true, of course; I wasn't there myself, but
a fellow who was told me. Another fellow who was at Bulawayo, but who
wasn't there when they were hung, said they fired at them just after they
jumped, to kill 'em. I--"
"I was there," said the stranger.
"Oh, you were?" said Peter. "I saw a photograph of the niggers hanging,
and our fellows standing round smoking; but I didn't see you in it. I
|
