| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: the windows of her home, marked by the huge golden molar
that projected, flashing, from the bay window of the
"Parlors." She saw the open windows of the sitting-room,
the Nottingham lace curtains stirring and billowing in the
draft, and she caught sight of Maria Macapa's towelled head
as the Mexican maid-of-all-work went to and fro in the
suite, sweeping or carrying away the ashes. Occasionally in
the windows of the "Parlors" she beheld McTeague's rounded
back as he bent to his work. Sometimes, even, they saw each
other and waved their hands gayly in recognition.
By eleven o'clock Trina returned to the flat, her brown net
McTeague |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: perhaps thro' fear of being thought to have but little.
Then I walked up the street, gazing about till near the market-house
I met a boy with bread. I had made many a meal on bread, and,
inquiring where he got it, I went immediately to the baker's
he directed me to, in Secondstreet, and ask'd for bisket,
intending such as we had in Boston; but they, it seems, were not
made in Philadelphia. Then I asked for a three-penny loaf,
and was told they had none such. So not considering or knowing
the difference of money, and the greater cheapness nor the names
of his bread, I made him give me three-penny worth of any sort.
He gave me, accordingly, three great puffy rolls. I was surpriz'd
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: up the downhill with a warm blueness.
'It's a very fine colour in itself,' said Clifford, 'but useless for
making a painting.'
'Quite!' said Connie, completely uninterested.
'Shall I venture as far as the spring?' said Clifford.
'Will the chair get up again?' she said.
'We'll try; nothing venture, nothing win!'
And the chair began to advance slowly, joltingly down the beautiful
broad riding washed over with blue encroaching hyacinths. O last of all
ships, through the hyacinthian shallows! O pinnace on the last wild
waters, sailing in the last voyage of our civilization! Whither, O
Lady Chatterley's Lover |
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 Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: understood - Kalawao, which you have never visited, about which you
have never so much as endeavoured to inform yourself; for, brief as
your letter is, you have found the means to stumble into that
confession. "LESS THAN ONE-HALF of the island," you say, "is
devoted to the lepers." Molokai - "MOLOKAI AHINA," the "grey,"
lofty, and most desolate island - along all its northern side
plunges a front of precipice into a sea of unusual profundity.
This range of cliff is, from east to west, the true end and
frontier of the island. Only in one spot there projects into the
ocean a certain triangular and rugged down, grassy, stony, windy,
and rising in the midst into a hill with a dead crater: the whole
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