| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: hair. The fame that came to Mrs. Aubyn with her second book left
Glennard's imagination untouched, or had at most the negative
effect of removing her still farther from the circle of his
contracting sympathies. We are all the sport of time; and fate
had so perversely ordered the chronology of Margaret Aubyn's
romance that when her husband died Glennard felt as though he had
lost a friend.
It was not in his nature to be needlessly unkind; and though he
was in the impregnable position of the man who has given a woman
no more definable claim on him than that of letting her fancy that
he loves her, he would not for the world have accentuated his
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: "What is it?" she asked.
"Still design, for decorating stuffs, and for embroidery."
She bent short-sightedly over the drawings.
It irritated him that she peered so into everything that
was his, searching him out. He went into the parlour and returned
with a bundle of brownish linen. Carefully unfolding it,
he spread it on the floor. It proved to be a curtain or portiere,
beautifully stencilled with a design on roses.
"Ah, how beautiful!" she cried.
The spread cloth, with its wonderful reddish roses and dark
green stems, all so simple, and somehow so wicked-looking, lay at
Sons and Lovers |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the Prince of Dusar, bleeding at the mouth, and with
drawn sword, crawled from the entanglement of the pimalia.
Astok would have leaped to mortal combat with the son
of Dejah Thoris, but the guardsmen pressed about him,
preventing, though it was clearly evident that naught
would have better pleased Carthoris of Helium.
"But say the word, Thuvia of Ptarth," he begged,
"and naught will give me greater pleasure than meting to
this fellow the punishment he has earned."
"It cannot be, Carthoris," she replied. "Even though
he has forfeited all claim upon my consideration, yet is
Thuvia, Maid of Mars |
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 The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: mother, who's a good, true woman, has had her share in making
you what you are this moment. For she was one of the
pioneers--the fightin' pioneers of this state. Those years of
wild times, before you was born, developed in her instinct to
fight, to save her life, her children, an' that instinct has
cropped out in you. It will be many years before it dies out of
the boys born in Texas."
"I'm a murderer," said Duane, shuddering.
"No, son, you're not. An' you never will be. But you've got to
be an outlaw till time makes it safe for you to come home."
"An outlaw?"
The Lone Star Ranger |
