| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: There was an astonishing change in the treatment of the blue and
white bundle when the sisters and Eudora were in the stately old
sitting-room, with its heavy mahogany furniture and its
white-wainscoted calls. Amelia simply tossed the bundle into a
corner of the sofa; then the sisters all sat in a loving circle
around Eudora.
"Are you sure you are not utterly worn out, dear?" asked Amelia,
tenderly; and the others repeated the question in exactly the
same tone. The Lancaster sisters were not pretty, but all had
charming expressions of gentleness and a dignified good-will and
loving kindness. Their blue eyes beamed love at Eudora, and it
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: He had waited patiently until Mary's strength had been
fully restored and her
mind filled with the new enthusiasm for motherhood. He
could tell her now with little risk. And yet he
ventured on the task with reluctance. He found her
seated at her favorite window overlooking the deep blue
valley of the Swannanoa, a volume of poetry in her lap.
He touched her shoulder and she smiled in cheerful
response.
"You are content?" he asked.
"A strange peace is slowly stealing into my heart,"
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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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: "Do spare me, Arabella."
Arabella was duly installed in the little attic, and at first she did not
come near Jude at all. She went to and fro about her own business, which,
when they met for a moment on the stairs or in the passage, she informed him
was that of obtaining another place in the occupation she understood best.
When Jude suggested London as affording the most likely opening in the liquor
trade, she shook her head. "No--the temptations are too many," she said.
"Any humble tavern in the country before that for me."
On the Sunday morning following, when he breakfasted later than on other days,
she meekly asked him if she might come in to breakfast with him, as she had
broken her teapot, and could not replace it immediately, the shops being shut.
Jude the Obscure |
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 To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: mind kept throwing up from its depths, scenes, and names, and sayings,
and memories and ideas, like a fountain spurting over that glaring,
hideously difficult white space, while she modelled it with greens and
blues.
Charles Tansley used to say that, she remembered, women can't paint,
can't write. Coming up behind her, he had stood close beside her, a
thing she hated, as she painted her on this very spot. "Shag tobacco,"
he said, "fivepence an ounce," parading his poverty, his principles.
(But the war had drawn the sting of her femininity. Poor devils, one
thought, poor devils, of both sexes.) He was always carrying a book
about under his arm--a purple book. He "worked." He sat, she
To the Lighthouse |
