| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: By Jove! I've never seen anything so unreal in my life.
And outside, the silent wilderness surrounding this cleared
speck on the earth struck me as something great and invincible,
like evil or truth, waiting patiently for the passing away
of this fantastic invasion.
"Oh, these months! Well, never mind. Various things yhappened.
One evening a grass shed full of calico, cotton prints, beads, and I don't
know what else, burst into a blaze so suddenly that you would have thought
the earth had opened to let an avenging fire consume all that trash.
I was smoking my pipe quietly by my dismantled steamer, and saw
them all cutting capers in the light, with their arms lifted high,
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: in rhythmical precision; but a red bandanna, wrapped about the
head of one, caught and held his eye.
"Bill!" he called. "Oh, Bill!"
A shambling, loose-jointed giant rolled out of one of the tents,
yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Then he sighted the
strange canoe and was wide awake on the instant.
"By the jumping Methuselah! That damned sky-pilot!"
Hay Stockard nodded his head bitterly, half-reached for his rifle,
then shrugged his shoulders.
"Pot-shot him," Bill suggested, "and settle the thing out of hand.
He'll spoil us sure if we don't." But the other declined this
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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 A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: "I was struck with admiration for this indomitable love, outdoing the
most ingenious marvels of fairy tales in real life--a love that would
spring over a precipice to find a roc's egg, or to gather the singing
flower. I explained that the Southern Cross was a nebulous
constellation even brighter than the Milky Way, arranged in the form
of a cross, and that it could only be seen in southern latitudes.
" 'Very well, Charles, let us go,' said she.
"La Palferine, ferocious though he was, had tears in his eyes; but
what a look there was in Claudine's face, what a note in her voice! I
have seen nothing like the thing that followed, not even in the
supreme touch of a great actor's art; nothing to compare with her
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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 Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: extinguish it! Are you already so corrupt that, being old in heart,
you act like a young prostitute who inflames the emotions in which she
trades?'
" 'Why, this is Friday,' she replied, alarmed by the Frenchman's
violence.
"Sarrasine, who was not piously inclined, began to laugh. La
Zambinella gave a bound like a young deer, and darted into the salon.
When Sarrasine appeared, running after her, he was welcomed by a roar
of infernal laughter. He saw La Zambinella swooning on a sofa. She was
very pale, as if exhausted by the extraordinary effort she had made.
Although Sarrasine knew but little Italian, he understood his mistress
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