| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: each other so rapidly in his heart at the moment when he saw the
humble brown door of the rooms inhabited by Mademoiselle
Leseigneur. This girl, whose name was not the same as her
mother's, had aroused the young painter's deepest sympathies; he
chose to fancy some similarity between himself and her as to
their position, and attributed to her misfortunes of birth akin
to his own. All the time he worked Hippolyte gave himself very
willingly to thoughts of love, and made a great deal of noise to
compel the two ladies to think of him, as he was thinking of
them. He stayed late at the studio and dined there; then, at
about seven o'clock, he went down to call on his neighbors.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: cause, or a country--was in a crisis. He was
welded into a common personality which was
dominated by a single desire. For some mo-
ments he could not flee no more than a little
finger can commit a revolution from a hand.
If he had thought the regiment was about to
be annihilated perhaps he could have amputated
himself from it. But its noise gave him assur-
ance. The regiment was like a firework that,
once ignited, proceeds superior to circumstances
until its blazing vitality fades. It wheezed and
The Red Badge of Courage |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: his idle tootling.
I took off my coat, and set to mending it, soldier-fashion, with a
needle and thread. There is nothing more conducive to thought,
above all in arduous circumstances; and as I sewed, I gradually
gained a clearness upon my affairs. I must be done with the
claret-coloured chaise at once. It should be sold at the next
stage for what it would bring. Rowley and I must take back to the
road on our four feet, and after a decent interval of trudging, get
places on some coach for Edinburgh again under new names! So much
trouble and toil, so much extra risk and expense and loss of time,
and all for a slip of the tongue to a little lady in blue!
|
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 Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: of his times and profession, which permitted strong personal
allusions, he petitioned that the wounded mind of one of these
noble parties might be healed, in reward of her compliance with
the advice of her right honourable parents; and that, as she had
proved herself a child after God's commandment, by honouring her
father and mother, she and hers might enjoy the promised
blessing--length of days in the land here, and a happy portion
hereafter in a better country. He prayed farther, that the
bridegroom might be weaned from those follies which seduced youth
from the path of knowledge; that he might cease to take delight
in vain and unprofitable company, scoffers, rioters, and those
The Bride of Lammermoor |
