| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: I entered the room where the corpse lay and was led up to the coffin.
How can I describe my sensations on beholding it? I feel yet
parched with horror, nor can I reflect on that terrible moment
without shuddering and agony. The examination, the presence of the
magistrate and witnesses, passed like a dream from my memory when
I saw the lifeless form of Henry Clerval stretched before me.
I gasped for breath, and throwing myself on the body, I exclaimed,
"Have my murderous machinations deprived you also, my dearest Henry,
of life? Two I have already destroyed; other victims await their destiny;
but you, Clerval, my friend, my benefactor--"
The human frame could no longer support the agonies that I endured,
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: whispered, leaning over her shoulder as she moved.
"Come into the other room," she murmured, "or we shall wake the
baby." Her voice was softly excited.
Eudora led the way into the parlor, upon whose walls hung some
really good portraits and whose furnishings still merited the
adjective magnificent. There had been opulence in the Yates
family; and in this room, which had been conserved, there was
still undimmed and unfaded evidence of it. Eudora drew aside a
brocade curtain and sat down on an embroidered satin sofa.
Lawton sat beside her.
"This room looks every whit as grand as it used to look to me
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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 An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: say: "Faith alone makes one righteous." The nature of the German
tongue teaches us to say it in the same way. In addition, I have
the examples of the holy fathers. The dangers confronting the
people also compel it so they do not continue to hang onto works
and wander away from faith, losing Christ, especially at this time
when they have been so accustomed to works they have to be pulled
away from them by force. It is for these reasons that it is not
only right but also necessary to say it as plainly and forcefully
as possible: "Faith alone saves without works!" I am only sorry I
did not add "alle" and "aller", and said "without any (alle) works
of any (aller) laws." That would have stated it most effectively.
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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 Silas Marner by George Eliot: Silas, with much chuckling, to consider the mystery too. But the
wet boots had at last suggested to Silas that the child had been
walking on the snow, and this roused him from his entire oblivion of
any ordinary means by which it could have entered or been brought
into his house. Under the prompting of this new idea, and without
waiting to form conjectures, he raised the child in his arms, and
went to the door. As soon as he had opened it, there was the cry of
"mammy" again, which Silas had not heard since the child's first
hungry waking. Bending forward, he could just discern the marks
made by the little feet on the virgin snow, and he followed their
track to the furze bushes. "Mammy!" the little one cried again
Silas Marner |
