| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: wearied now, and I can speak. You and me must twine,"[19] I said.
"I liked you very well, Alan, but your ways are not mine, and
they're not God's: and the short and the long of it is just that
we must twine."
[19] Part.
"I will hardly twine from ye, David, without some kind of reason
for the same," said Alan, mighty gravely. "If ye ken anything
against my reputation, it's the least thing that ye should do,
for old acquaintance' sake, to let me hear the name of it; and if
ye have only taken a distaste to my society, it will be proper
for me to judge if I'm insulted."
Kidnapped |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: Incessant pop the corks, and busy knives
Dispense the tongue and chicken.
Flushed with new life, the crowd flows back again:
And all is tangled talk and mazy motion -
Much like a waving field of golden grain,
Or a tempestuous ocean.
And thus they give the time, that Nature meant
For peaceful sleep and meditative snores,
To ceaseless din and mindless merriment
And waste of shoes and floors.
And One (we name him not) that flies the flowers,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: cooled a space and refreshed himself with tea and bread and
butter and jam,--the tea he drank noisily out of the saucer,--he
went out to loiter away the rest of the afternoon. Guildford is
an altogether charming old town, famous, so he learnt from a
Guide Book, as the scene of Master Tupper's great historical
novel of Stephen Langton, and it has a delightful castle, all set
about with geraniums and brass plates commemorating the gentlemen
who put them up, and its Guildhall is a Tudor building, very
pleasant to see, and in the afternoon the shops are busy and the
people going to and fro make the pavements look bright and
prosperous. It was nice to peep in the windows and see the heads
|
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 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: exciting.
"What did he do?"
"Oh, Scarlett, he has the most terrible reputation. His name is
Rhett Butler and he's from Charleston and his folks are some of
the nicest people there, but they won't even speak to him. Caro
Rhett told me about him last summer. He isn't any kin to her
family, but she knows all about him, everybody does. He was
expelled from West Point. Imagine! And for things too bad for
Caro to know. And then there was that business about the girl he
didn't marry."
"Do tell me!"
Gone With the Wind |
