| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: "My Clara, she come all-a-time Sundays an' play for me. She not
like to play at Ericson's place." He shook his yellow curls and
laughed. "Not a Goddamn a fun at Ericson's. You come a Sunday.
You like-a fun. No forget de flute." Joe talked very rapidly and
always tumbled over his English. He seldom spoke it to his
customers, and had never learned much.
Nils swung himself into the saddle and trotted to the west of
the village, where the houses and gardens scattered into prairie
land and the road turned south. Far ahead of him, in the declining
light, he saw Clara Vavrika's slender figure, loitering on
horseback. He touched his mare with the whip, and shot along the
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: centuries when for me time had ceased? Tell me, Humphrey, did you
dream at all while you were ill? I ask because down in that
lonely cavern where I sleep a strange dream came to me one night.
It was of a journey which, as I thought, you and I seemed to make
together, past suns and universes to a very distant earth. It
meant nothing, Humphrey. If you and I chanced to have dreamed the
same thing, it was only because my dream travelled to you. It is
most common, or used to be. Humphrey, Bickley is quite right, I
am not altogether as your women are, and I can bring no happiness
to any man, or at the least, to one who cannot wait. Therefore,
perhaps you would do well to think less of me, as I have
When the World Shook |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: So said I - and yet I could not tear myself away. I moved a few
paces, and then looked back, for one last view of her stately home,
that I might have its outward form, at least, impressed upon my
mind as indelibly as her own image, which, alas! I must not see
again - then walked a few steps further; and then, lost in
melancholy musings, paused again and leant my back against a rough
old tree that grew beside the road.
CHAPTER LIII
While standing thus, absorbed in my gloomy reverie, a gentleman's
carriage came round the corner of the road. I did not look at it;
and had it rolled quietly by me, I should not have remembered the
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
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 Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: at him, but he had lifted the rum to his lips and was
drinking it with so much composure, that suspicions, if the
captain had any, died away.
"At any rate," murmured he, "if it be, so much the better,
for I have made a rare acquisition." Under pretence of being
fatigued, Dantes asked to take the helm; the steersman, glad
to be relieved, looked at the captain, and the latter by a
sign indicated that he might abandon it to his new comrade.
Dantes could thus keep his eyes on Marseilles.
"What is the day of the month?" asked he of Jacopo, who sat
down beside him.
The Count of Monte Cristo |
