| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: de Trailles.
"Very good," said Rastignac; "say to those gentlemen that I will
receive them in a few moments."
Shortly after, Monsieur de l'Estorade and Monsieur de Camps rose to
take leave; and it was then that Rastignac very succinctly let the
peer know of the danger looming on the horizon of his friend
Sallenauve. Monsieur de l'Estorade exclaimed against the word
/friend/.
"I don't know, my dear minister," he said, "why you insist on giving
that title to a man who is, really and truly, a mere acquaintance,
and, I may add, a passing acquaintance, if the rumors you have just
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll: Too nervous to utter a word:
When it rose to its feet, there was silence like night,
And the fall of a pin might be heard.
"Transportation for life" was the sentence it gave,
"And *then* to be fined forty pound."
The Jury all cheered, though the Judge said he feared
That the phrase was not legally sound.
But their wild exultation was suddenly checked
When the jailer informed them, with tears,
Such a sentence would have not the slightest effect,
As the pig had been dead for some years.
The Hunting of the Snark |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: had taken this flame on the top of Dundonald Castle for the Irvine light.
She thought herself at the entrance of the Firth, ten miles to the north,
when she was really running on a shore which offered no refuge.
What could be done to save her, if there was still time? It was
too late. A frightful crash was heard above the tumult of the elements.
The vessel had struck. The white line of surf was broken for an instant;
she heeled over on her side and lay among the rocks.
At the same time, by a strange coincidence, the long flame disappeared,
as if it had been swept away by a violent gust. Earth, sea, and sky
were plunged in complete darkness.
"The Fire-Maiden!" shouted Ryan, for the last time, as the apparition,
|
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 Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: wore neatly trimmed, old-fashioned whiskers, the sable
moustache having disappeared; and his dress was
half-clerical, a modification which had changed his
expression sufficiently to abstract the dandyism from
his features, and to hinder for a second her belief in
his identity.
To Tess's sense there was, just at first, a ghastly
BIZARRERIE, a grim incongruity, in the march of these
solemn words of Scripture out of such a mouth. This
too familiar intonation, less than four years earlier,
had brought to her ears expressions of such divergent
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
