| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: sound was tragical by distance, and the modulation appealed
to his ear like human speech. It seemed to call upon him
with a dreary insistence - to call him far away, to address
him personally, and to have a meaning that he failed to
seize. It was thus, at least, in this nodding castle, in a
cold, miry woodland, and so far from men and society, that
the traffic on the Great North Road spoke to him in the
intervals of slumber.
THE GREAT NORTH ROAD
CHAPTER III - JONATHAN HOLDAWAY
NANCE descended the tower stair, pausing at every step. She
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: had, for so much coolness, the strength that she considered she
knew all about Miss Dolman.
"Yes--paid." She saw all sorts of things in this reply, even to a
small suppressed start of surprise at so correct an assumption;
even to an attempt the next minute at a fresh air of detachment.
"How much, with the answer?" The calculation was not abstruse, but
our intense observer required a moment more to make it, and this
gave her ladyship time for a second thought. "Oh just wait!" The
white begemmed hand bared to write rose in sudden nervousness to
the side of the wonderful face which, with eyes of anxiety for the
paper on the counter, she brought closer to the bars of the cage.
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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 Chance by Joseph Conrad: mental excesses were theoretical, hedged in by so much humane
feeling and conventional reserves, that they amounted to no more
than mere libertinage of thought; whereas the other woman, the
governess of Flora de Barral, was, as you may have noticed, severely
practical--terribly practical. No! Hers was not a rare
temperament, except in its fierce resentment of repression; a
feeling which like genius or lunacy is apt to drive people into
sudden irrelevancy. Hers was feminine irrelevancy. A male genius,
a male ruffian, or even a male lunatic, would not have behaved
exactly as she did behave. There is a softness in masculine nature,
even the most brutal, which acts as a check.
Chance |
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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: sent for.
Hanno fell upon the grass; and he saw around him other crosses also,
as though the torture by which he was about to perish had been
multiplied beforehand; he made efforts to convince himself that he was
mistaken, that there was only one, and even to believe that there were
none at all. At last he was lifted up.
"Speak!" said Matho.
He offered to give up Hamilcar; then they would enter Carthage and
both be kings.
Matho withdrew, signing to the others to make haste. It was a
stratagem, he thought, to gain time.
Salammbo |
