| 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: There was a show of gratitude and worship in his attachment to my mother,
differing wholly from the doting fondness of age, for it was inspired
by reverence for her virtues and a desire to be the means of,
in some degree, recompensing her for the sorrows she had endured,
but which gave inexpressible grace to his behaviour to her.
Everything was made to yield to her wishes and her convenience.
He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener,
from every rougher wind and to surround her with all that could tend to
excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind. Her health,
and even the tranquillity of her hitherto constant spirit, had been shaken
by what she had gone through. During the two years that had elapsed
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Betty Zane by Zane Grey: little low-roofed hut contained a variety of things. Boxes, barrels and
farming implements filled one corner; packs of dried skins were piled against
the wall; some otter and fox pelts were stretched on the wall, and a number of
powder kegs lined a shelf. A slender canoe swung from ropes thrown over the
rafters. Alfred slipped it out of the loops and carried it outside.
The canoe was a superb specimen of Indian handiwork. It had a length of
fourteen feet and was made of birch hark, stretched over a light framework of
basswood. The bow curved gracefully upward, ending in a carved image
representing a warrior's head. The sides were beautifully ornamented and
decorated in fanciful Indian designs.
"My brother's Indian guide, Tomepomehala, a Shawnee chief, made it for me. You
Betty Zane |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: you buried your late captain, isn't it?" Then with
severity: "Don't you think, Mr. Burns, it's about
time you dropped all that nonsense?"
He rolled at me his deep-sunken eyes in a glance
of invincible obstinacy. But for the rest he only
muttered, just loud enough for me to hear, some-
thing about "Not surprised . . . find . . .
play us some beastly trick yet. . . ."
Such passages as this were not exactly whole-
some for my resolution. The stress of adversity
was beginning to tell on me. At the same time, I
The Shadow Line |
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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: of equality, seemed to me excellent gentlemen. They were not rough,
nor hasty, nor disputatious; debated pleasantly, differed kindly;
were helpful, gentle, patient, and placid. The type of manners was
plain, and even heavy; there was little to please the eye, but
nothing to shock; and I thought gentleness lay more nearly at the
spring of behaviour than in many more ornate and delicate societies.
I say delicate, where I cannot say refined; a thing may be fine, like
ironwork, without being delicate, like lace. There was here less
delicacy; the skin supported more callously the natural surface of
events, the mind received more bravely the crude facts of human
existence; but I do not think that there was less effective
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