| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: man, and in the morning, before the Smiths were
up, she slipped out across the back yard. Holding
the door of the wood-lodge ajar, she looked in and
extended to him half a loaf of white bread--'such
bread as the rich eat in my country,' he used to
say.
"At this he got up slowly from amongst all sorts
of rubbish, stiff, hungry, trembling, miserable, and
doubtful. 'Can you eat this?' she asked in her
soft and timid voice. He must have taken her for
a 'gracious lady.' He devoured ferociously, and
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: away,' he added, turning to his master's wife.
'I'll look after them, Nikita dear. I'll tell Simon,' replied
the mistress.
'Well, Vasili Andreevich, am I to come with you?' said Nikita,
awaiting a decision.
'It seems I must humour my old woman. But if you're coming
you'd better put on a warmer cloak,' said Vasili Andreevich,
smiling again as he winked at Nikita's short sheepskin coat,
which was torn under the arms and at the back, was greasy and
out of shape, frayed to a fringe round the skirt, and had
endured many things in its lifetime.
Master and Man |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: truth, all the rest, the ten thousand talari, the thousand gold
pieces, and the fine weapons, were all, yes all, drunk up by the
thirsty treasury of the Turkish admiral. My position was the more
perilous because that very admiral happened to be Chosrew pacha. After
I routed him, the fellow had managed to obtain a position which is
equal to that of our Admiral of the Fleet--"
"But I thought he was in the cavalry?" said Pere Leger, who had
followed the narrative with the deepest attention.
"Dear me! how little the East is understood in the French provinces!"
cried Georges. "Monsieur, I'll explain the Turks to you. You are a
farmer; the Padishah (that's the Sultan) makes you a marshal; if you
|
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 Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: On so perilous an employ."
It fell in the dusk of the night
When unco things betide,
That he was aware of a captain-man
Drew near to the waterside.
He was aware of his coming
Down in the gloaming alone;
And he looked in the face of the man
And lo! the face was his own.
"This is my weird," he said,
"And now I ken the worst;
Ballads |
