| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: pretended neither to notice nor to care about, but sat reading.
Miriam read also, obliterating herself. Mrs. Morel hated her
for making her son like this. She watched Paul growing irritable,
priggish, and melancholic. For this she put the blame on Miriam.
Annie and all her friends joined against the girl. Miriam had no
friend of her own, only Paul. But she did not suffer so much,
because she despised the triviality of these other people.
And Paul hated her because, somehow, she spoilt his ease
and naturalness. And he writhed himself with a feeling of humiliation.
CHAPTER VIII
STRIFE IN LOVE
Sons and Lovers |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: sea, put his hands on his son, and compelled him to return home. Once
here, he did not ask him, 'What have you done?' but he said:--
"'If you do not conduct yourself properly at home with your mother and
me, and go fishing, and behave like an honest man, you and I will have
a reckoning.'
"The crazy fellow, counting on his parent's folly, made a face; on
which Pierre struck him a blow which sent Jacques to his bed for six
weeks. The poor mother nearly died of grief. One night, as she was
fast asleep beside her husband, a noise awoke her; she rose up
quickly, and was stabbed in the arm with a knife. She cried out loud,
and when Pierre Cambremer struck a light and saw his wife wounded, he
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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 Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs: scent spoor that he had detected the previous night, and he
saw that not only in the matter of scent did the man differ
from other human beings with whom Tarzan was familiar.
The fellow was strongly built with skin of a leathery ap-
pearance, like parchment yellowed with age. His hair, which
was coal black and three or four inches in length, grew out
stiffly at right angles to his scalp. His eyes were close set and
the irises densely black and very small, so that the white of
the eyeball showed around them. The man's face was smooth
except for a few straggly hairs on his chin and upper lip.
The nose was aquiline and fine, but the hair grew so far down
Tarzan the Untamed |
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 St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: far from satisfied; and I could read his continued suspicions in
the cloudy eye that still hovered about my face. At last they took
shape in words.
'This is all very well,' says he: 'you carry it off well; but for
all that, I must do my duty.'
I had my strong effect in reserve; it was to burn my ships with a
vengeance! I rose. 'Leave the room,' said I. 'This is
insuperable. Is the man mad?' And then, as if already half-
ashamed of my passion: 'I can take a joke as well as any one,' I
added; 'but this passes measure. Send my servant and the bill.'
When he had left me alone, I considered my own valour with
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