| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: package of brown sugar, or soap, or brandy, and sometimes even money.
He brought her his clothes to mend, and she accepted the task gladly,
because it meant another visit from him.
In August, his father took him on a coasting-vessel.
It was vacation time and the arrival of the children consoled
Felicite. But Paul was capricious, and Virginia was growing too old to
be thee-and-thou'd, a fact which seemed to produce a sort of
embarrassment in their relations.
Victor went successively to Morlaix, to Dunkirk, and to Brighton;
whenever he returned from a trip he would bring her a present. The
first time it was a box of shells; the second, a coffee-cup; the
A Simple Soul |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: this claim on Mr Elliot, I should be extremely happy to be of use to you
in any way that I could. Shall I mention to him your being in Bath?
Shall I take any message?"
"No, I thank you: no, certainly not. In the warmth of the moment,
and under a mistaken impression, I might, perhaps, have endeavoured
to interest you in some circumstances; but not now. No, I thank you,
I have nothing to trouble you with."
"I think you spoke of having known Mr Elliot many years?"
"I did."
"Not before he was married, I suppose?"
"Yes; he was not married when I knew him first."
Persuasion |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: decided, as decent a crowd of people--Those old chaps over by the gangways,
too--fine, solid old chaps. What chests--by Jove! And he squared his own,
plunged his thick-gloved hands into his pockets, rocked from heel to toe.
"Yes, my wife's been in Europe for the last ten months. On a visit to our
eldest girl, who was married last year. I brought her up here, as far as
Salisbury, myself. So I thought I'd better come and fetch her back. Yes,
yes, yes." The shrewd grey eyes narrowed again and searched anxiously,
quickly, the motionless liner. Again his overcoat was unbuttoned. Out
came the thin, butter-yellow watch again, and for the twentieth--fiftieth--
hundredth time he made the calculation.
"Let me see now. It was two fifteen when the doctor's launch went off.
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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 Parmenides by Plato: is diminished. In this way that which was older becomes younger, and that
which was younger becomes older, that is to say, younger and older than at
first; and they ever become and never have become, for then they would be.
Thus the one and others always are and are becoming and not becoming
younger and also older than one another. And one, partaking of time and
also partaking of becoming older and younger, admits of all time, present,
past, and future--was, is, shall be--was becoming, is becoming, will
become. And there is science of the one, and opinion and name and
expression, as is already implied in the fact of our inquiry.
Yet once more, if one be one and many, and neither one nor many, and also
participant of time, must there not be a time at which one as being one
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