| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: return from it. It was one of those fishermen that
accompanied the general with a light. And this morning, bark
and fishermen have all disappeared, carried away by the
night's tide."
"For my part," said the lieutenant, "I see nothing in that
that is not quite natural, for these people were not
prisoners."
"No, but I repeat it was one of them who lighted the general
and this gentleman to the abbey, and Digby assures us that
the general had strong suspicions concerning those people.
Now, who can say whether these people were not connected
Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: undyingly active; the description of which would need such minute
observations that to persons eager for dramatic emotions they would
seem insipid. This analysis, in which every wife would find some one
of her own sufferings, would require a volume to express them all; a
fruitless, hopeless volume by its very nature, the merit of which
would consist in faintest tints and delicate shadings which critics
would declare to be effeminate and diffuse. Besides, what man could
rightly approach, unless he bore another heart within his heart, those
solemn and touching elegies which certain women carry with them to
their tomb; melancholies, misunderstood even by those who cause them;
sighs unheeded, devotions unrewarded,--on earth at least,--splendid
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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 Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence: ridiculous bouncing of the buttocks, and the wilting of the poor,
insignificant, moist little penis. This was the divine love! After all,
the moderns were right when they felt contempt for the performance; for
it was a performance. It was quite true, as some poets said, that the
God who created man must have had a sinister sense of humour, creating
him a reasonable being, yet forcing him to take this ridiculous
posture, and driving him with blind craving for this ridiculous
performance. Even a Maupassant found it a humiliating anti-climax. Men
despised the intercourse act, and yet did it.
Cold and derisive her queer female mind stood apart, and though she lay
perfectly still, her impulse was to heave her loins, and throw the man
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 The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: For she had sinned deeply against her husband, she knew. Her fear
and her confusion had driven her deeper and deeper into the waters
of deceit until it was impossible for her to find the words that
would have brought help and comfort from the man whom she loved more
than anything else in the world. In the very earliest stages of
Winkler's persecution she had lost her head completely and instead
of confessing to her husband and asking for his aid and protection,
she had pawned the rich jewels which had been his wedding present to
get the money demanded by the blackmailer. In her ignorance she had
thought that this one sum would satisfy him.
But he came again and again, demanding money which she saved from
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