| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: "No; except that he was hurt or--or--out of his mind, maybe, and
you couldn't bring him home."
"An' ye have heared nothin' more?"
"No," said Babcock, wondering at her anxious manner.
"Ye know that since he went away I've done the work meself,
standin' out as he would have done in the cold an' wet an' workin'
for the children wid nobody to help me but these two hands."
Babcock nodded. He knew how true it was.
"Ye've wondered many a time, maybe, that I niver brought him home
an' had him round wid me other poor cripple, Patsy--them two
togither." Her voice fell almost to a whisper.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: fatal blow, he would probably grow an old man when he could no longer
come from his home to the ministry, sit in the same chair and copy a
certain number of pages. Poiret's eyes were dim, his glance weak and
lifeless, his skin discolored and wrinkled, gray in tone and speckled
with bluish dots; his nose flat, his lips drawn inward to the mouth,
where a few defective teeth still lingered. His gray hair, flattened
to the head by the pressure of his hat, gave him the look of an
ecclesiastic,--a resemblance he would scarcely have liked, for he
hated priests and clergy, though he could give no reasons for his
anti-religious views. This antipathy, however, did not prevent him
from being extremely attached to whatever administration happened to
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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 Lin McLean by Owen Wister: her, 'has hearts and self-respect, and ain't hogs clean through.'
"'I know," she says, thoughtful-like.
"And at her whispering that way I gets madder.
"'You know!' I says then. 'What is it that you know? Do you know that you
have hurt a good man's heart? For onced I hurt it myself, though
different. And hurts in them kind of hearts stays. Some hearts is that
luscious and pasty you can stab 'em and it closes up so yu'd never
suspicion the place--but Lin McLean! Nor yet don't yus believe his is the
kind that breaks--if any kind does that. You may sit till the gray
hairs, and you may wall up your womanhood, but if a man has got manhood
like him, he will never sit till the gray hairs. Grief over losin' the
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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 Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: Are these ideas right or wrong?
III
The October night comes down; returning as before
Except for a slight sensation of being ill at ease
I mount the stairs and turn the handle of the door
And feel as if I had mounted on my hands and knees.
"And so you are going abroad; and when do you return?
But that’s a useless question.
You hardly know when you are coming back,
You will find so much to learn."
My smile falls heavily among the bric-a-brac.
Prufrock/Other Observations |
