| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: his mental faculties wakened to unwonted activity. I suppose this
resemblance disarmed Mr. Heathcliff: he walked to the hearth in
evident agitation; but it quickly subsided as he looked at the
young man: or, I should say, altered its character; for it was
there yet. He took the book from his hand, and glanced at the open
page, then returned it without any observation; merely signing
Catherine away: her companion lingered very little behind her, and
I was about to depart also, but he bid me sit still.
'It is a poor conclusion, is it not?' he observed, having brooded
awhile on the scene he had just witnessed: 'an absurd termination
to my violent exertions? I get levers and mattocks to demolish the
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: remaining to be told--many days and nights would not suffice to tell of
them. Let them not be forgotten, and let every man remind their
descendants that they also are soldiers who must not desert the ranks of
their ancestors, or from cowardice fall behind. Even as I exhort you this
day, and in all future time, whenever I meet with any of you, shall
continue to remind and exhort you, O ye sons of heroes, that you strive to
be the bravest of men. And I think that I ought now to repeat what your
fathers desired to have said to you who are their survivors, when they went
out to battle, in case anything happened to them. I will tell you what I
heard them say, and what, if they had only speech, they would fain be
saying, judging from what they then said. And you must imagine that you
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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 Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: thought or wish which told you what your vocation was?" asked Emile
Blondet; "for we all, like Newton, have our apple, which falls and
leads us to the spot where our faculties develop----"
"Yes," said de Marsay; "I will tell you about it."
Pretty women, political dandies, artists, old men, de Marsay's
intimate friends,--all settled themselves comfortably, each in his
favorite attitude, to look at the Minister. Need it be said that the
servants had left, that the doors were shut, and the curtains drawn
over them? The silence was so complete that the murmurs of the
coachmen's voices could be heard from the courtyard, and the pawing
and champing made by horses when asking to be taken back to their
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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 Iliad by Homer: Young men's minds are light as air, but when an old man comes he
looks before and after, deeming that which shall be fairest upon
both sides."
The Trojans and Achaeans were glad when they heard this, for they
thought that they should now have rest. They backed their
chariots toward the ranks, got out of them, and put off their
armour, laying it down upon the ground; and the hosts were near
to one another with a little space between them. Hector sent two
messengers to the city to bring the lambs and to bid Priam come,
while Agamemnon told Talthybius to fetch the other lamb from the
ships, and he did as Agamemnon had said.
The Iliad |
