| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: greatly; that's why so many of us marry authors or newspapermen
and lead miserable lives." Miss Broadwood saw that she had rather
disconcerted Imogen, and blithely tacked in another direction.
"You see," she went on, tossing aside her half-consumed
cigarette, "some years ago Flavia would not have deemed me worthy
to open the pages of your thesis--nor to be one of her house
party of the chosen, for that matter. I've Pinero to thank for
both pleasures. It all depends on the class of business I'm
playing whether I'm in favor or not. Flavia is my second cousin,
you know, so I can say whatever disagreeable things I choose with
perfect good grace. I'm quite desperate for someone to laugh
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: but sat perfectly still, staring. And when at last he was so cold that
he came to himself, he found his watch had stopped at half-past two.
It was after three o'clock. He was exhausted, but still there was
the torment of knowing it was only Sunday morning. He went to bed
and slept. Then he cycled all day long, till he was fagged out.
And he scarcely knew where he had been. But the day after was Monday.
He slept till four o'clock. Then he lay and thought. He was coming
nearer to himself--he could see himself, real, somewhere in front.
She would go a walk with him in the afternoon. Afternoon! It seemed
years ahead.
Slowly the hours crawled. His father got up; he heard him
Sons and Lovers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: on the part of one of these men. It is mostly
unprintable, but you will get an entirely new idea of
what profanity means. Also you will come to the
conclusion that you, with your trifling DAMNS, and
the like, have been a very good boy indeed. The
remotest, most obscure, and unheard of conceptions
are dragged forth from earth, heaven, and hell, and
linked together in a sequence so original, so gaudy,
and so utterly blasphemous, that you gasp and are
stricken with the most devoted admiration. It is genius.
Of course I can give you no idea here of what
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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 Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: Montcornet, one of those of Napoleon's generals who went over to the
Bourbons. The Vidame held that a dinner-party of more than six persons
was beneath contempt. In that case, according to him, there was an end
alike of cookery and conversation, and a man could not sip his wine in
a proper frame of mind.
"I have not yet told you, my dear boy, where I mean to take you to-
night," he said, taking Victurnien's hands and tapping on them. "You
are going to see Mlle. des Touches; all the pretty women with any
pretensions to wit will be at her house en petit comite. Literature,
art, poetry, any sort of genius, in short, is held in great esteem
there. It is one of our old-world bureaux d'esprit, with a veneer of
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