| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: an explanation, and at others he appeared to consider it as the offspring
of delirium, and that, during my illness, some idea of this kind had
presented itself to my imagination, the remembrance of which I preserved
in my convalescence.
I avoided explanation and maintained a continual silence concerning
the wretch I had created. I had a persuasion that I should be
supposed mad, and this in itself would forever have chained my tongue.
But, besides, I could not bring myself to disclose a secret which
would fill my hearer with consternation and make fear and unnatural
horror the inmates of his breast. I checked, therefore, my impatient
thirst for sympathy and was silent when I would have given the world
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: funny round face glowed all over with pleasure. 'I can easily put
it in repair, as I have a plank of wood in the house.'
"'A plank of wood'! said the Miller; 'why, that is just what I want
for the roof of my barn. There is a very large hole in it, and the
corn will all get damp if I don't stop it up. How lucky you
mentioned it! It is quite remarkable how one good action always
breeds another. I have given you my wheelbarrow, and now you are
going to give me your plank. Of course, the wheelbarrow is worth
far more than the plank, but true, friendship never notices things
like that. Pray get it at once, and I will set to work at my barn
this very day.'
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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 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: the due of her beauty which she was generally utterly without; would
turn her head; would look so, over her shoulder, always with some
Minta, Paul, or William Bankes at her side. At length, standing
outside the group the very figure of a famished wolfhound (Lily got up
off the grass and stood looking at the steps, at the window, where she
had seen him), he would say her name, once only, for all the world like
a wolf barking in the snow, but still she held back; and he would say
it once more, and this time something in the tone would rouse her, and
she would go to him, leaving them all of a sudden, and they would walk
off together among the pear trees, the cabbages, and the raspberry
beds. They would have it out together. But with what attitudes and
To the Lighthouse |
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 Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: a burst of wonderment.
"Zoe, here's spinach! Do come. Oh, look at the artichokes! They
are funny. So they grow in the ground, do they? Now, what can that
be? I don't know it. Do come, Zoe, perhaps you know."
The lady's maid never budged an inch. Madame must really be raving
mad. For now the rain was coming down in torrents, and the little
white silk sunshade was aly this time pulled up before the park gates. A
side door was opened, and the gardener, a tall, dry fellow, made his
appearance, cap in hand. Nana made an effort to regain her dignity,
for the driver seemed now to be suppressing a laugh behind his dry,
speechless lips. She refrained from setting off at a run and
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