| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters from England by Elizabeth Davis Bancroft: daylight. He immediately went himself by a short back passage
through the park to ask permission and returned with all the
eagerness and gallantry of a young man to say that he had obtained
it. We had thus an opportunity of seeing, in the most leisurely way
and in the most delightful society, the fine pictures and noble
apartments of Stafford House again.
. . . On Tuesday Mr. Hallam took us to the British Museum, and being
a director, he could enter on a private day, when we were not
annoyed by a crowd, and, moreover, we had the advantage of the best
interpreters and guides. We did not even enter the library, which
requires a day by itself, but confined ourselves to the Antiquity
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: "Kill!" said Kaa, as Mowgli's hand went to his knife.
"No," he said, as he drew the blade; "I will never kill again
save for food. But look you, Kaa!" He caught the snake behind
the hood, forced the mouth open with the blade of the knife,
and showed the terrible poison-fangs of the upper jaw lying
black and withered in the gum. The White Cobra had outlived his
poison, as a snake will.
"THUU" ("It is dried up"--Literally, a rotted out tree-stump),
said Mowgli; and motioning Kaa away, he picked up the ankus,
setting the White Cobra free.
"The King's Treasure needs a new Warden, he said gravely. "Thuu,
The Second Jungle Book |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: asks and inquires where his lodging is, he cannot learn when he
sees no sign of the black shield for which he seeks.
(Vv. 4727-4758.) By this ruse Cliges remains hidden in the town.
And those who were his prisoners went from one end of the town to
the other asking for the black knight, but none could give them
any information. Even King Arthur himself has search made up and
down for him; but there is only one answer: "We have not seen him
since we left the lists, and do not know what became of him."
More than twenty young men seek him, whom the King sent out; but
Cliges so successfully concealed himself that they cannot find a
trace of him. King Arthur is filled with astonishment when he is
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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 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: with Mrs. Grant and Miss Crawford, in a very handsome style,
with all the heightenings of imagination, and all the
laughs of playfulness which are so essential to the shade
of a departed ball, she could afterwards bring her mind
without much effort into its everyday state, and easily
conform to the tranquillity of the present quiet week.
They were indeed a smaller party than she had ever
known there for a whole day together, and _he_ was gone
on whom the comfort and cheerfulness of every family
meeting and every meal chiefly depended. But this must
be learned to be endured. He would soon be always gone;
Mansfield Park |
