| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: floor, and found the house of great extent; the kitchen
offices commodious and well appointed; the rooms many and
large; and the drawing-room, in particular, an apartment of
princely size and tasteful decoration. Although the day
without was warm, genial, and sunny, with a ruffling wind
from the quarter of Torquay, a chill, as it were, of
suspended animation inhabited the house. Dust and shadows
met the eye; and but for the ominous procession of the
echoes, and the rumour of the wind among the garden trees,
the ear of the young man was stretched in vain.
Behind the dining-room, that pleasant library, referred to by
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: height above the rolling land, the shadowy, powerful bulk of Warsop
Castle, dark grey, with below it the reddish plastering of miners'
dwellings, newish, and below those the plumes of dark smoke and white
steam from the great colliery which put so many thousand pounds per
annum into the pockets of the Duke and the other shareholders. The
powerful old castle was a ruin, yet it hung its bulk on the low
sky-line, over the black plumes and the white that waved on the damp
air below.
A turn, and they ran on the high level to Stacks Gate. Stacks Gate, as
seen from the highroad, was just a huge and gorgeous new hotel, the
Coningsby Arms, standing red and white and gilt in barbarous isolation
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: "At the other side of the works.--Kirby, what's that?"
Mitchell started back, half-frightened, as, suddenly turning a
corner, the white figure of a woman faced him in the darkness,--
a woman, white, of giant proportions, crouching on the ground,
her arms flung out in some wild gesture of warning.
"Stop! Make that fire burn there!" cried Kirby, stopping short.
The flame burst out, flashing the gaunt figure into bold relief.
Mitchell drew a long breath.
"I thought it was alive," he said, going up curiously.
The others followed.
"Not marble, eh?" asked Kirby, touching it.
Life in the Iron-Mills |
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 Kenilworth by Walter Scott: was, according to the phrase of the times, a martialist--had done
good service in Ireland and in Scotland, and especially in the
great northern rebellion, in 1569, which was quelled, in a great
measure, by his military talents. He was, therefore, naturally
surrounded and looked up to by those who wished to make arms
their road to distinction. The Earl of Sussex, moreover, was of
more ancient and honourable descent than his rival, uniting in
his person the representation of the Fitz-Walters, as well as of
the Ratcliffes; while the scutcheon of Leicester was stained by
the degradation of his grandfather, the oppressive minister of
Henry VII., and scarce improved by that of his father, the
Kenilworth |
