| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: "Ah--there you have me! No--I couldn't kill you--even in a passion.
Taunt away!"
He then began coughing very much, and she estimated his life
with an appraiser's eye as he sank back ghastly pale.
"I'll send for her," Arabella murmured, "if you'll agree to my
being in the room with you all the time she's here."
The softer side of his nature, the desire to see Sue, made him
unable to resist the offer even now, provoked as he had been;
and he replied breathlessly: "Yes, I agree. Only send
for her!"
In the evening he inquired if she had written.
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: makes his character so difficult to represent. Our fathers, upon
some difficult theme, would invoke the Muse; I can but appeal to
the imagination of the reader. When I dwell upon some one thing,
he must bear in mind it was only one of a score; that the
unweariable brain was teeming at the very time with other thoughts;
that the good heart had left no kind duty forgotten.
I.
In Edinburgh, for a considerable time, Fleeming's family, to three
generations, was united: Mr. and Mrs. Austin at Hailes, Captain
and Mrs. Jenkin in the suburb of Merchiston, Fleeming himself in
the city. It is not every family that could risk with safety such
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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 Emma by Jane Austen: I will break my resolution now."
Mr. Elton seemed very properly struck and delighted by the idea,
and was repeating, "No husbands and wives in the case at present
indeed, as you observe. Exactly so. No husbands and wives,"
with so interesting a consciousness, that Emma began to consider
whether she had not better leave them together at once. But as she
wanted to be drawing, the declaration must wait a little longer.
She had soon fixed on the size and sort of portrait.
It was to be a whole-length in water-colours, like Mr. John
Knightley's, and was destined, if she could please herself,
to hold a very honourable station over the mantelpiece.
Emma |
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 Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: heat his oven; who are not ashamed to admire "the creature's
instinct"; and flying far beyond folly, have dared to resuscitate
the theory of animal machines. The "dog's instinct" and the
"automaton-dog," in this age of psychology and science, sound like
strange anachronisms. An automaton he certainly is; a machine
working independently of his control, the heart, like the mill-
wheel, keeping all in motion, and the consciousness, like a person
shut in the mill garret, enjoying the view out of the window and
shaken by the thunder of the stones; an automaton in one corner of
which a living spirit is confined: an automaton like man. Instinct
again he certainly possesses. Inherited aptitudes are his,
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