| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: always speak my mind) I am very much afraid that one half of the
people in the room will not know whether you have a Gown on or
not--But I suppose you intend to make your fortune to night--.
Well, the sooner the better; and I wish you success."
"Indeed Ma'am I have no such intention--"
"Who ever heard a young Lady own that she was a Fortune-hunter?"
Miss Greville laughed but I am sure Ellen felt for me.
"Was your Mother gone to bed before you left her?" said her
Ladyship.
"Dear Ma'am, said Ellen it is but nine o'clock."
"True Ellen, but Candles cost money, and Mrs Williams is too wise
Love and Friendship |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: grimy, the window looked like the sleeve of some shabby wadded gown--
greasy, dirty, and full of holes.
" ' "Mlle. Fanny Malvaut?"
" ' "She has gone out; but if you have come about a bill, the money is
waiting for you."
" ' "I will look in again," said I.
" 'As soon as I knew that the porter had the money for me, I wanted to
know what the girl was like; I pictured her as pretty. The rest of the
morning I spent in looking at the prints in the shop windows along the
boulevard; then, just as it struck twelve, I went through the
Countess' ante-chamber.
Gobseck |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: treasure If go to seek-not into Lorraine, not into Belgium, but to
Paris, where she will be much better concealed, particularly while the
cardinal is at L Rochelle. Well, once returned from the country, half
by the protection of her cousin, half through what we have personally
done for her, we shall obtain from the queen what we desire. Remain,
then, where you are, and do not exhaust yourselves with useless fatigue.
Myself and Planchet are all that such a simple expedition requires."
To this Athos replied quietly: "We also have money left--for I have not
yet drunk all my share of the diamond, and Porthos and Aramis have not
eaten all theirs. We can therefore use up four horses as well as one.
But consider, D'Artagnan," added he, in a tone so solemn that it made
The Three Musketeers |
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 Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: bound ultimately to meet at the top.
Even that opposition often made by males to the entrance of woman into the
new fields of labour, of which they at present hold the monopoly, is not
fundamentally sexual in its nature. The male who opposes the entrance of
woman into the trade or profession in which he holds more or less a
monopoly, would oppose with equal, and perhaps even greater bitterness, the
opening of its doors to numbers of his own sex who had before been
excluded, and who would limit his gains and share his privileges. It is
the primitive brute instinct to retain as much as possible for the ego,
irrespective of justice or humanity, which dominates all the lower moral
types of humanity, both male and female, which acts here. The lawyer or
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