| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: He looked at me queerly for a minute, and told me the Herberts
had left immediately after the unpleasantness, as he called it,
and since then the house had been empty."
Mr. Villiers paused for a moment.
"I have always been rather fond of going over empty
houses; there's a sort of fascination about the desolate empty
rooms, with the nails sticking in the walls, and the dust thick
upon the window-sills. But I didn't enjoy going over Number 20,
Paul Street. I had hardly put my foot inside the passage when I
noticed a queer, heavy feeling about the air of the house. Of
course all empty houses are stuffy, and so forth, but this was
The Great God Pan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: eyes full of tears, vindictive, squinting with wrath; her face
and neck were red and tense, and she was shouting at the top of
her voice.
"I don't mean to go on being a slave!" she went on. "I am worn
out. When it is work, when it is sitting in the shop day in and
day out, scurrying out at night for vodka -- then it is my share,
but when it is giving away the land then it is for that convict's
wife and her imp. She is mistress here, and I am her servant.
Give her everything, the convict's wife, and may it choke her! I
am going home! Find yourselves some other fool, you damned
Herods!"
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: not a sound broke the midnight hush. His feet made no noise upon
the resinous softness of the ground below. In that dead,
pulseless silence he could distinctly hear the distant voices of
Levi and his companion, sounding loud and resonant in the hollow
of the woods. Beyond the woods was a cornfield, and presently he
heard the rattling of the harsh leaves as the two plunged into
the tasseled jungle. Here, as in the woods, he followed them,
step by step, guided by the noise of their progress through the
canes.
Beyond the cornfield ran a road that, skirting to the south of
Lewes, led across a wooden bridge to the wide salt marshes that
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: "Nice little saloon, isn't it?" I remarked, as if noticing for the first
time the way his eyes roamed from one closed door to the other.
"And very well fitted out, too. Here, for instance," I continued,
reaching over the back of my seat negligently and flinging the door open,
"is my bathroom."
He made an eager movement, but hardly gave it a glance.
I got up, shut the door of the bathroom, and invited him to have
a look round, as if I were very proud of my accomodation.
He had to rise and be shown round, but he went through the business
without any raptures whatever.
"And now we'll have a look at my stateroom," I declared,
The Secret Sharer |
