| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: institution as the jail in their village.
It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor
debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute
him, looking through their fingers, which were crossed to
represent the jail window, "How do ye do?" My neighbors did
not this salute me, but first looked at me, and then at one
another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I was
put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a
shoe which was mender. When I was let out the next morning,
I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my
mended show, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: arm-chair drawn up to the fender.
"Look here, George," said my uncle, after my first greetings. "I
just been saying: We aren't Oh Fay!"
"Eh?"
"Not Oh Fay! Socially!"
"Old FLY, he means, George--French!"
"Oh! Didn't think of French. One never knows where to have him.
What's gone wrong to-night?"
"I been thinking. It isn't any particular thing. I ate too much
of that fishy stuff at first, like salt frog spawn, and was a bit
confused by olives; and--well, I didn't know which wine was
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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 Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: skill of the monks of those times, who chose so beautiful a
situation for the seat of their retirement; and who built here the
greatest and, in its time, the most flourishing monastery in all
these parts of England, I mean the monastery of St. Edmund the
Martyr. It was, if we believe antiquity, a house of pleasure in
more ancient times, or to speak more properly, a court of some of
the Saxon or East Angle kings; and, as Mr. Camden says, was even
then called a royal village, though it much better merits that name
now; it being the town of all this part of England, in proportion
to its bigness, most thronged with gentry, people of the best
fashion, and the most polite conversation. This beauty and
|
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 Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: another may do."
"I hope so; but, still, I may be permitted -"
"You shall have my leave to hold your tongue, Axel, but not to talk
in that irrational way."
I could see the awful Professor bursting through my uncle's skin, and
I took timely warning.
"Now look at your aneroid. What does that say?"
"It says we are under considerable pressure."
"Very good; so you see that by going gradually down, and getting
accustomed to the density of the atmosphere, we don't suffer at all."
"Nothing, except a little pain in the ears."
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
