| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: All young girls, romantic or otherwise, can imagine the impatience in
which Modeste lived for the next few days. The air was full of tongues
of fire. The trees were like a plumage. She was not conscious of a
body; she hovered in space, the earth melted away under her feet. Full
of admiration for the post-office, she followed her little sheet of
paper on its way; she was happy, as we all are happy at twenty years
of age, in the first exercise of our will. She was possessed, as in
the middle ages. She made pictures in her mind of the poet's abode, of
his study; she saw him unsealing her letter; and then followed myriads
of suppositions.
After sketching the poetry we cannot do less than give the profile of
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: he would embrace at once the whole warm round immensity of the
world. He did not follow the neat set paths that cut the garden
squarely, but thrust across the beds and through the wet, tall,
scented herbs, through the night stock and the nicotine and the
clusters of phantom white mallow flowers and through the thickets
of southern-wood and lavender, and knee-deep across a wide space of
mignonette. He came to the great hedge and he thrust his way
through it, and though the thorns of the brambles scored him deeply
and tore threads from his wonderful suit, and though burs and
goosegrass and havers caught and clung to him, he did not care. He
did not care, for he knew it was all part of the wearing for which
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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 The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: was terrible. What seemed particularly dreadful was that doves
were flying over the fire in the smoke; and in the tavern, where
they did not yet know of the fire, they were still singing and
playing the concertina as though there were nothing the matter.
"Uncle Semyon's on fire," shouted a loud, coarse voice.
Marya was fussing about round her hut, weeping and wringing her
hands, while her teeth chattered, though the fire was a long way
off at the other end of the village. Nikolay came out in high
felt boots, the children ran out in their little smocks. Near the
village constable's hut an iron sheet was struck. Boom, boom,
boom! . . . floated through the air, and this repeated,
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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 Rinkitink In Oz by L. Frank Baum: To his joy he was not overtaken but landed on the sandy
beach of the Wheelers on the morning of the eighth day.
The forty rowers were left with the boat, while Queen
Cor and King Cos, with their royal prisoners, who were
still chained, began the journey to the Nome King.
It was not long before they passed the sands and
reached the rocky country belonging to the nomes, but
they were still a long way from the entrance to the
underground caverns in which lived the Nome King. There
was a dim path, winding between stones and boulders,
over which the walking was quite difficult, especially
Rinkitink In Oz |
