| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: the truth of any part of it, for she listened to it all
with the most steady and submissive attention, made neither
objection nor remark, attempted no vindication of Willoughby,
and seemed to shew by her tears that she felt it to
be impossible. But though this behaviour assured Elinor
that the conviction of this guilt WAS carried home to
her mind, though she saw with satisfaction the effect of it,
in her no longer avoiding Colonel Brandon when he called,
in her speaking to him, even voluntarily speaking,
with a kind of compassionate respect, and though she
saw her spirits less violently irritated than before,
Sense and Sensibility |
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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: and fled, through the other doorway, out into the woods.
Eastward the sky was brightening; day was about to dawn; and Kwairyo knew
that the power of the goblins was limited to the hours of darkness. He
looked at the head clinging to his sleeve,-- its face all fouled with blood
and foam and clay; and he laughed aloud as he thought to himself: "What a
miyage! [4] -- the head of a goblin!" After which he gathered together his
few belongings, and leisurely descended the mountain to continue his
journey.
Right on he journeyed, until he came to Suwa in Shinano; (6) and into the
main street of Suwa he solemnly strode, with the head dangling at his
elbow. Then woman fainted, and children screamed and ran away; and there
Kwaidan |
