| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: CHAPTER XXXIX.
IN the morning we went up to the village and bought
a wire rat-trap and fetched it down, and unstopped
the best rat-hole, and in about an hour we had fifteen
of the bulliest kind of ones; and then we took it and
put it in a safe place under Aunt Sally's bed. But
while we was gone for spiders little Thomas Franklin
Benjamin Jefferson Elexander Phelps found it there,
and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come
out, and they did; and Aunt Sally she come in, and
when we got back she was a-standing on top of the bed
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: The sun look'd on the world with glorious eye,
Yet not so wistly as this queen on him.
He, spying her, bounced in, whereas he stood:
'O Jove,' quoth she, 'why was not I a flood!'
VII.
Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle;
Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty;
Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is brittle;
Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty:
A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her,
None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: CHAPTER XIV - ATTACKED BY TARTARS
IT was the beginning of February, new style, when we set out from
Pekin. My partner and the old pilot had gone express back to the
port where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods which we
had left there; and I, with a Chinese merchant whom I had some
knowledge of at Nankin, and who came to Pekin on his own affairs,
went to Nankin, where I bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, with
about two hundred pieces of other very fine silk of several sorts,
some mixed with gold, and had all these brought to Pekin against my
partner's return. Besides this, we bought a large quantity of raw
silk, and some other goods, our cargo amounting, in these goods
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: have been taught by some one well acquainted with the rules of propriety."
Then turning to his host,-- the aruji, or house-master, as the others
called him,-- Kwairyo said:--
"From the kindness of your speech, and from the very polite welcome given
me by your household, I imagine that you have not always been a woodcutter.
Perhaps you formerly belonged to one of the upper classes?"
Smiling, the woodcutter answered:--
"Sir, you are not mistaken. Though now living as you find me, I was once a
person of some distinction. My story is the story of a ruined life --
ruined by my own fault. I used to be in the service of a daimyo; and my
rank in that service was not inconsiderable. But I loved women and wine too
Kwaidan |
