| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: of my employer. Yet it appeared to me that we were all,
at Bly, sufficiently sacrificed to make that venial.
"I don't think your uncle much cares."
Miles, on this, stood looking at me. "Then don't you think he can
be made to?"
"In what way?"
"Why, by his coming down."
"But who'll get him to come down?"
"_I_ will!" the boy said with extraordinary brightness and emphasis.
He gave me another look charged with that expression and then marched
off alone into church.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: XXXVI
MR. DE COURCY TO LADY SUSAN
---- Hotel.
Why would you write to me? Why do you require particulars? But, since it
must be so, I am obliged to declare that all the accounts of your
misconduct during the life, and since the death of Mr. Vernon, which had
reached me, in common with the world in general, and gained my entire
belief before I saw you, but which you, by the exertion of your perverted
abilities, had made me resolved to disallow, have been unanswerably proved
to me; nay more, I am assured that a connection, of which I had never
before entertained a thought, has for some time existed, and still
Lady Susan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: and conducted the field operations by orders delivered
through aides-de-camp. Tom's army won a great
victory, after a long and hard-fought battle. Then
the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged, the terms
of the next disagreement agreed upon, and the day
for the necessary battle appointed; after which the
armies fell into line and marched away, and Tom turned
homeward alone.
As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher
lived, he saw a new girl in the garden -- a lovely little
blue-eyed creature with yellow hair plaited into two
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
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 Salome by Oscar Wilde: SALOME. Donnez-moi la tete d'Iokanaan.
HERODIAS. C'est bien dit, ma fille! Vous, vous etes ridicule avec
vos paons.
HERODE. Taisez-vous. Vous criez toujours. Vous criez comme une
bete de proie. Il ne faut pas crier comme cela. Votre voix
m'ennuie. Taisez-vous, je vous dis . . . Salome, pensez e ce que
vous faites. Cet homme vient peut-etre de Dieu. Je suis sur qu'il
vient de Dieu. C'est un saint homme. Le doigt de Dieu l'a touche.
Dieu a mis dans sa bouche des mots terribles. Dans le palais, comme
dans le desert, Dieu est toujours avec lui . . . Au moins, c'est
possible. On ne sait pas, mais il est possible que Dieu soit pour
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