| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: something - to show himself, in a word, that he wasn't afraid. The
state of "holding on" was thus the state to which he was
momentarily reduced; if there had been anything, in the great
vacancy, to seize, he would presently have been aware of having
clutched it as he might under a shock at home have clutched the
nearest chair-back. He had been surprised at any rate - of this he
WAS aware - into something unprecedented since his original
appropriation of the place; he had closed his eyes, held them
tight, for a long minute, as with that instinct of dismay and that
terror of vision. When he opened them the room, the other
contiguous rooms, extraordinarily, seemed lighter - so light,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: herself. "You take the knapsack and I'll go through his pockets."
Stooping over the dead man with distaste, she unbuttoned the
remaining buttons of his jacket and systematically began rifling
his pockets.
"Dear God," she whispered, pulling out a bulging wallet, wrapped
about with a rag. "Melanie--Melly, I think it's full of money!"
Melanie said nothing but abruptly sat down on the floor and leaned
back against the wall.
"You look," she said shakily. "I'm feeling a little weak."
Scarlett tore off the rag and with trembling hands opened the
leather folds.
Gone With the Wind |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: life of man. Turn as we pleased, we all stood back to back in
a big ring, and saw another quarter of the heavens, with
different mountain-tops along the sky-line and different
constellations overhead. We had each of us some whimsy in the
brain, which we believed more than anything else, and which
discoloured all experience to its own shade. How would you
have people agree, when one is deaf and the other blind? Now
this is where there should be community between man and wife.
They should be agreed on their catchword in "FACTS OF
RELIGION," or "FACTS OF SCIENCE," or "SOCIETY, MY DEAR"; for
without such an agreement all intercourse is a painful strain
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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 Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: nerve right here that communicates with the brain.
That blow makes you see stars, bright lights, and fancy
colors. They use it in the comic papers."
"You ARE crazy," said Fanny, as though at last assured of
a long-suspected truth. The train began to move, almost
imperceptibly. "Run!" she cried.
Heyl sped up the aisle. At the door he turned. "It's
called an uppercut," he shouted to the amazement of the
other passengers. And leaped from the train.
Fanny sank into her seat, weakly. Then she began to laugh,
and there was a dash of hysteria in it. He had left a paper
Fanny Herself |
