| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: themselves. But, if you be ashamed of your touchiness, you must
ask pardon, mind, when she comes in. You must go up and offer to
kiss her, and say - you know best what to say; only do it heartily,
and not as if you thought her converted into a stranger by her
grand dress. And now, though I have dinner to get ready, I'll
steal time to arrange you so that Edgar Linton shall look quite a
doll beside you: and that he does. You are younger, and yet, I'll
be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders;
you could knock him down in a twinkling; don't you feel that you
could?'
Heathcliff's face brightened a moment; then it was overcast afresh,
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: you have really done right, you have done only what was your duty.
I pity you deeply that you - "
"That I have brought suspicion upon my master by my own foolishness?"
she finished the sentence with a pitifully sad smile. "If I could
have controlled myself, could have kept calm, nobody would have had
a thought or a suspicion that he - my pet, my darling - that it was
he who was forced, through some terrible circumstance of which I do
not know, to free his wife, in this manner, from the wretch who
persecuted her."
Mrs. Bernauer wrung her hands and gazed with despairing eyes at the
man who sat before her, himself deeply moved.
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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 Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: with their eyes, they beheld a herd of buffalo. The arrow sprang
from the bow! It darted into the skull of the foremost buffalo.
But unlike other arrows it pierced through the head of the creature
and spinning in the air lit into the next buffalo head. One by one
the buffalo fell upon the sweet grass they were grazing. With
straight quivering limbs they lay on their sides. The young man
stood calmly by, counting on his fingers the buffalo as they
dropped dead to the ground. When the last one fell, he ran thither
and picking up his magic arrow wiped it carefully on the soft
grass. He slipped it into his long fringed quiver.
"He is going to make a feast for some hungry tribe of men or
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: half-solemn, half-satirical.
Sebastien meanwhile had made up a package of papers and letters
belonging to his chief and had carried them away in a hackney coach.
Rabourdin passed through the grand courtyard, while all the clerks
were watching from the windows, and waited there a moment to see if
the minister would send him any message. His Excellency was dumb.
Phellion courageously escorted the fallen man to his home, expressing
his feelings of respectful admiration; then he returned to the office,
and took up his work, satisfied with his own conduct in rendering
these funeral honors to the neglected and misjudged administrative
talent.
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