| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: and it was pleasant to be made out a heroine after so much
expostulation and so many secret doubts.
But she did not listen long; she wanted to talk. She sat,
crouched together, by the corner of the hearthrug under the
bookcase that supported the pig's skull, and looked into the fire
and up at Ann Veronica's face, and let herself go. "Let us put
the lamp out," she said; "the flames are ever so much better for
talking," and Ann Veronica agreed. "You are coming right out
into life--facing it all."
Ann Veronica sat with her chin on her hand, red-lit and saying
little, and Miss Miniver discoursed. As she talked, the drift
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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 Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: saw nothing good.
"We'll take the field with the same weapons," thought he, "and beat
them."
At this moment, Paul, Solonet and Madame Evangelista, becoming
embarrassed by the old man's silence, felt that the approval of that
censor was necessary to carry out the transaction, and all three
turned to him simultaneously.
"Well, my dear Monsieur Mathias, what do you think of it?" said Paul.
"This is what I think," said the conscientious and uncompromising
notary. "You are not rich enough to commit such regal folly. The
estate of Lanstrac, if estimated at three per cent on its rentals,
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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 This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: not going to last out this war.... I've been trying to tell you
how much this reincarnation of myself in you has meant in the
last few years ... curiously alike we are ... curiously unlike.
Good-by, dear boy, and God be with you. THAYER DARCY.
EMBARKING AT NIGHT
Amory moved forward on the deck until he found a stool under an
electric light. He searched in his pocket for note-book and
pencil and then began to write, slowly, laboriously:
"We leave to-night...
Silent, we filled the still, deserted street,
A column of dim gray,
This Side of Paradise |
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 The Koran: reward of those who do good; but those who disbelieve and say our
signs are lies, they are the fellows of hell.
O ye who believe! forbid not the good things which God has made
lawful for you, nor transgress; verily, God loves not the
transgressors.
But eat of what God has provided you lawfully of good things; and
fear God, in whom ye believe.
God will not catch you up for a casual word in your oaths, but He
will catch you up for having what ye make deliberate oaths about;
and the expiation thereof is to feed ten poor men with the middling
food ye feed your families withal, or to clothe them, or to free a
The Koran |
