| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: sleep, would listen for a moment till the hurry-scurry had
clattered by, and then exclaim, "Ay, there goes Brom Bones
and his gang!" The neighbors looked upon him with a mixture
of awe, admiration, and good-will; and, when any madcap prank
or rustic brawl occurred in the vicinity, always shook their
heads, and warranted Brom Bones was at the bottom of it.
This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the
blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and
though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle
caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that she
did not altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, his
 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
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 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: I could not feel her. And my second self was making now ready to
slip out and lower himself overboard. Perhaps he was gone already
. . .?
The great black mass brooding over our very mastheads began to
pivot away from the ship's side silently. And now I forgot the
secret stranger ready to depart, and remembered only that I was a
total stranger to the ship. I did not know her. Would she do it?
How was she to be handled?
I swung the mainyard and waited helplessly. She was perhaps
stopped, and her very fate hung in the balance, with the black mass
of Koh-ring like the gate of the everlasting night towering over
 'Twixt Land & Sea |