| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: give you the outside outlines of a night, a crisis in the life
of one man: whatever muddy depth of soul-history lies beneath
you can read according to the eyes God has given you.
Wolfe, while Deborah watched him as a spaniel its master, bent
over the furnace with his iron pole, unconscious of her
scrutiny, only stopping to receive orders. Physically, Nature
had promised the man but little. He had already lost the
strength and instinct vigor of a man, his muscles were thin, his
nerves weak, his face ( a meek, woman's face) haggard, yellow
with consumption. In the mill he was known as one of the girl-
men: "Molly Wolfe" was his sobriquet. He was never seen in the
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: To let base clouds o'ertake me in my way,
Hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke?
'Tis not enough that through the cloud thou break,
To dry the rain on my storm-beaten face,
For no man well of such a salve can speak,
That heals the wound, and cures not the disgrace:
Nor can thy shame give physic to my grief;
Though thou repent, yet I have still the loss:
The offender's sorrow lends but weak relief
To him that bears the strong offence's cross.
Ah! but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds,
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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 Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: a good stroke of business. And for my part I am free to confess to
these gainsayers that a good many things may be done at Athens by dint
of money; and I will add, that a good many more still might be done,
if the money flowed still more freely and from more pockets. One
thing, however, I know full well, that as to transacting with every
one of these applicants all he wants, the state could not do it, not
even if all the gold and silver in the world were the inducement
offered.
Here are some of the cases which have to be decided on. Some one fails
to fit out a ship: judgement must be given. Another puts up a building
on a piece of public land: again judgement must be given. Or, to take
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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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James: just want you to help me to save you!" But I knew in a moment
after this that I had gone too far. The answer to my appeal
was instantaneous, but it came in the form of an extraordinary
blast and chill, a gust of frozen air, and a shake of the room
as great as if, in the wild wind, the casement had crashed in.
The boy gave a loud, high shriek, which, lost in the rest
of the shock of sound, might have seemed, indistinctly, though I
was so close to him, a note either of jubilation or of terror.
I jumped to my feet again and was conscious of darkness.
So for a moment we remained, while I stared about me and saw
that the drawn curtains were unstirred and the window tight.
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