| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: through and through! You wouldn't have run away from any battle of
Chattanooga!" But what I did say was, "These flowers here will fade, but
may I not hope to see you again in Kings Port?"
She was looking at me with eyes half closed; half closed for the sake of
insolence--and better observation; when eyes like that take on
drowsiness, you will be wise to leave all your secrets behind you, locked
up in the bank, or else toss them right down on the open table. Well, I
tossed mine down, thereto precipitated by a warning from the stranger in
the launch:--
"We shall need all the tide we can get."
"I'm sure you'd be glad to know," I then said immediately (to Charley, of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: natures too, to whose sense of justice the price exacted looms up
monstrously enormous, odious, oppressive, worrying, humiliating,
extortionate, intolerable. Those are the fanatics. The remaining
portion of social rebels is accounted for by vanity, the mother of
all noble and vile illusions, the companion of poets, reformers,
charlatans, prophets, and incendiaries.
Lost for a whole minute in the abyss of meditation, Mr Verloc did
not reach the depth of these abstract considerations. Perhaps he
was not able. In any case he had not the time. He was pulled up
painfully by the sudden recollection of Mr Vladimir, another of his
associates, whom in virtue of subtle moral affinities he was
The Secret Agent |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The School For Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan: MARIA. I'll answer for't there are no grounds for the Report.
MRS. CANDOUR. Oh, no foundation in the world I dare swear[;]
no more probably than for the story circulated last month,
of Mrs. Festino's affair with Colonel Cassino--tho' to be sure
that matter was never rightly clear'd up.
SURFACE. The license of invention some people take is monstrous
indeed.
MARIA. 'Tis so but in my opinion, those who report such things
are equally culpable.
MRS. CANDOUR. To be sure they are[;] Tale Bearers are as bad as
the Tale makers--'tis an old observation and a very true one--but
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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 Mother by Owen Wister: waiting."
"'Blake and Beverly!' I exclaimed 'So they made the purchase. It Mr.
Beverly back?'"
"'Just back. To tell the truth I don't believe they're finding so much
copper as they hoped.'"
"This turned out to be true. And I am not sure that the business man had
not known it all the while. 'We looked over the property pretty
thoroughly at the time of the Tamarack excitement,' he said. And in a few
days more, in fact, it was generally known that this land had returned to
its old state of not quite paying the taxes."
"Then I paid my visit to Mr. Beverly, but with no cowhide. 'Mr. Beverly,'
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