| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: go ashore," said Captain Anthony hastily. Franklin thought there
was no more to hear, and made a movement to leave the saloon. But
the captain continued after a slight pause, "You will be surprised,
no doubt, when you look at it. There'll be a good many alterations.
It's on account of a lady coming with us. I am going to get
married, Mr. Franklin!"
CHAPTER TWO--YOUNG POWELL SEES AND HEARS
"You remember," went on Marlow, "how I feared that Mr. Powell's want
of experience would stand in his way of appreciating the unusual.
The unusual I had in my mind was something of a very subtle sort:
the unusual in marital relations. I may well have doubted the
Chance |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: A labyrinth of galleries, some higher than the most lofty cathedrals,
others like cloisters, narrow and winding--these following a horizontal
line, those on an incline or running obliquely in all directions--
connected the caverns and allowed free communication between them.
The pillars sustaining the vaulted roofs, whose curves allowed
of every style, the massive walls between the passages, the naves
themselves in this layer of secondary formation, were composed
of sandstone and schistous rocks. But tightly packed between these
useless strata ran valuable veins of coal, as if the black blood
of this strange mine had circulated through their tangled network.
These fields extended forty miles north and south, and stretched
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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 The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: adventures
and triumphs would have made a far richer, more imposing history,
full of contacts with the great events and personages of the
time.
But somehow or other he did not care to speak much about it,
walking on that wide heavenly moorland, under that tranquil,
sunless arch of blue, in that free air of perfect peace, where
the light
was diffused without a shadow, as if the spirit of life in all
things
were luminous.
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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 The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: No contrast could be greater or more startling than that seen in the
companionship of these two men. It was like seeing a frail and
graceful shrub that has grown from the hollow trunk of some gnarled
willow, withered by age, blasted by lightning, standing decrepit; one
of those majestic trees that painters love; the trembling sapling
takes shelter there from storms. One was a god, the other was an
angel; one the poet that feels, the other the poet that expresses--a
prophet in sorrow, a levite in prayer.
They went out together without speaking.
"Did you mark how he called him to him?" cried the sergeant of the
watch when the footsteps of the couple were no longer audible on the
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