| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Emma by Jane Austen: and nieces!--I shall often have a niece with me."
"Do you know Miss Bates's niece? That is, I know you must have
seen her a hundred times--but are you acquainted?"
"Oh! yes; we are always forced to be acquainted whenever she comes
to Highbury. By the bye, that is almost enough to put one out
of conceit with a niece. Heaven forbid! at least, that I should
ever bore people half so much about all the Knightleys together,
as she does about Jane Fairfax. One is sick of the very name
of Jane Fairfax. Every letter from her is read forty times over;
her compliments to all friends go round and round again; and if she
does but send her aunt the pattern of a stomacher, or knit a pair
Emma |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: Russians were gone. But he made a profit on his journey in
spite of fate, and stayed awhile to pick up scraps of
knowledge from the Dutch interpreters - a low class of men,
but one that had opportunities; and then, still full of
purpose, returned to Yeddo on foot, as he had come.
It was not only his youth and courage that supported him
under these successive disappointments, but the continual
affluence of new disciples. The man had the tenacity of a
Bruce or a Columbus, with a pliability that was all his own.
He did not fight for what the world would call success; but
for "the wages of going on." Check him off in a dozen
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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 Gorgias by Plato: are so well acquainted, would prevail far and wide: 'Chaos' would come
again, and cookery, health, and medicine would mingle in an indiscriminate
mass. And now I have told you my notion of rhetoric, which is, in relation
to the soul, what cookery is to the body. I may have been inconsistent in
making a long speech, when I would not allow you to discourse at length.
But I think that I may be excused, because you did not understand me, and
could make no use of my answer when I spoke shortly, and therefore I had to
enter into an explanation. And if I show an equal inability to make use of
yours, I hope that you will speak at equal length; but if I am able to
understand you, let me have the benefit of your brevity, as is only fair:
And now you may do what you please with my answer.
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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 Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: more and more and more! Now thou hast smitten in thy hour; in theirs
they shall smite in turn. Now THEY lie low in blood at thy hand; in a
day to come, O King, THOU shalt lie low in blood at theirs. Madness
has taken hold of thee, O King, that thou hast done this thing, and
the fruit of thy madness shall be thy death. I have spoken, I, who am
the king's servant. Let the will of the king be done."
Then I stood still waiting to be killed, for, my father, in the fury
of my heart at the wickedness which had been worked I could not hold
back my words. Thrice Dingaan looked on me with a terrible face, and
yet there was fear in his face striving with its rage, and I waited
calmly to see which would conquer, the fear or the rage. When at last
Nada the Lily |
