| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: parents were abroad at the time, George and Lucy here, so that it
was to Jack that I imparted the news of my resolve. As you may
imagine, he did all that he could to shake it. But I was
immovable. I disbelieved his facts, and despised his contempt from
the standpoint of my own superior morality. This state of things
continued for several weeks, during the greater part of which time
I was at Oxford. I only knew that while I was there, Jack had made
Delia's acquaintance, and was apparently cultivating it
assiduously.
"One day, during the Easter vacation, I got a note from her asking
me to supper at her house. Jack was invited too: we lodged
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: "May we? But I never sing. Well, I wish you a good journey.
I dine with Miss Tilney today, and must now be going home."
"Nay, but there is no such confounded hurry.
Who knows when we may be together again? Not but that I
shall be down again by the end of a fortnight, and a
devilish long fortnight it will appear to me."
"Then why do you stay away so long?"
replied Catherine--finding that he waited for an answer.
"That is kind of you, however--kind and good-natured.
I shall not forget it in a hurry. But you have more good
nature and all that, than anybody living, I believe.
Northanger Abbey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: world; but after the invasion of France, the return of the
Bourbons seemed to every Royalist mind the only possible way of
putting an end to the miseries of the war.
The Ducs de Navarreins and de Langeais had been faithful
throughout to the exiled Princes, nobly resisting all the
temptations of glory under the Empire. Under the circumstances
they naturally followed out the old family policy; and Mlle
Antoinette, a beautiful and portionless girl, was married to M.
le Marquis de Langeais only a few months before the death of the
Duke his father.
After the return of the Bourbons, the families resumed their
|
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 Confessio Amantis by John Gower: And thus upon miself the werre 1150
I bringe, and putte out alle pes,
That I fulofte in such a res
Am wery of myn oghne lif.
So that of Contek and of strif
I am beknowe and have ansuerd,
As ye, my fader, now have herd.
Min herte is wonderly begon
With conseil, wherof witt is on,
Which hath resoun in compaignie;
Ayein the whiche stant partie 1160
Confessio Amantis |
