| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: a time when I myself was very far from suspecting the violence of the
anguish awaiting those who crossed his threshold. Now it was I who was
about to beg and pray like so many others.
" 'Well, no, not THAT,' I said to myself; 'an honest man must keep his
self-respect wherever he goes. Success is not worth cringing for; let
us show him a front as decided as his own.'
"Daddy Gobseck had taken my room since I left the house, so as to have
no neighbor; he had made a little grated window too in his door since
then, and did not open until he had taken a look at me and saw who I
was.
" 'Well,' said he, in his thin, flute notes, 'so your principal is
 Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: light. Why had men never any newness in them, any freshness to come
forth with! Stale men!
Clifford stopped the chair at the top of the rise and looked down. The
bluebells washed blue like flood-water over the broad riding, and lit
up the downhill with a warm blueness.
'It's a very fine colour in itself,' said Clifford, 'but useless for
making a painting.'
'Quite!' said Connie, completely uninterested.
'Shall I venture as far as the spring?' said Clifford.
'Will the chair get up again?' she said.
'We'll try; nothing venture, nothing win!'
 Lady Chatterley's Lover |