| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: sat before she went to see the ladies and to tell them Good-bye.
There were many other ladies on the Mall, and many ladies passed in
their walk by the stone bench where Bessie Bell and the lady sat.
Everybody loved to come to the Mall in the afternoon when the band
played. Everybody loved to hear the gay music. Everybody loved to
see the children in their prettiest clothes, and to see all the
nurses rolling the babies in the carriages with the pretty parasols.
And one of the ladies passing by looked over to the stone bench
where Bessie Bell sat with her hands folded on her blue checked
apron, and where the lady had seated herself just as Sister Helen
Vincula had sat before she went across the long bridge.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: Almayer was in his hammock now, already half asleep.
"Take the lamp, Nina," he muttered, drowsily. "This place is
full of mosquitoes. Go to sleep, daughter."
But Nina put the lamp out and turned back again towards the
balustrade of the verandah, standing with her arm round the
wooden support and looking eagerly towards the Pantai reach. And
motionless there in the oppressive calm of the tropical night she
could see at each flash of lightning the forest lining both banks
up the river, bending before the furious blast of the coming
tempest, the upper reach of the river whipped into white foam by
the wind, and the black clouds torn into fantastic shapes
Almayer's Folly |
