| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: in one offered no temptation, and as for this courtesy of the
country, this doubling up--!
"Well, they have got ahead of us." This was the Virginian
standing at my elbow.
I assented.
"They have staked out their claims," he added.
In this public sleeping room they had done what one does to
secure a seat in a railroad train. Upon each bed, as notice of
occupancy, lay some article of travel or of dress. As we stood
there, the two Jews came in and opened and arranged their
valises, and folded and refolded their linen dusters. Then a
The Virginian |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: half-past three in the morning. . . . On Friday morning [July 14th]
many of the guests, the Duke of Richmond, etc., took their departure
and Mr. Hudson had to escort Prince Albert to town, but returned the
same evening. . . . The next day we all went to pay a visit to an
estate of Mr. Hudson's [name of estate indecipherable] for which he
paid five hundred thousand pounds to the Duke of Devonshire. . . .
It is nobly situated in the Yorkshire wolds, a fine range of hills,
and overlooking the valley of the Humber, which was interesting to
me, as it was the river which our Pilgrim fathers sailed down and
lay in the Wash at its mouth, awaiting their passage to Holland.
They came, our Plymouth fathers, mostly from Lincolnshire and the
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: without being known, in a country like this, where social
and literary intercourse is on such a footing, where every
man is surrounded by a neighbourhood of voluntary spies,
and where roads and newspapers lay everything open? Dearest
Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting?"
They had reached the end of the gallery, and with
tears of shame she ran off to her own room.
CHAPTER 25
The visions of romance were over. Catherine was
completely awakened. Henry's address, short as it had been,
had more thoroughly opened her eyes to the extravagance of her
Northanger Abbey |
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 Falk by Joseph Conrad: Falk could put my ship ashore.
I have already explained how fatal this last
would have been. For my further action, my
youth, my inexperience, my very real concern for
the health of my crew must be my excuse. The ac-
tion itself, when it came, was purely impulsive. It
was set in movement quite undiplomatically and
simply by Falk's appearance in the doorway.
The room was full by then and buzzing with
voices. I had been looked at with curiosity by
every one, but how am I to describe the sensation
Falk |
