| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: - too long perhaps to state fully just now."
"What then have you learned?" asked the great man.
"First, I've learned that the ex-convict Michaelis had nothing to
do with it, though indeed the lad had been living with him
temporarily in the country up to eight o'clock this morning. It is
more than likely that Michaelis knows nothing of it to this
moment."
"You are positive as to that?" asked the great man.
"Quite certain, Sir Ethelred. This fellow Verloc went there this
morning, and took away the lad on the pretence of going out for a
walk in the lanes. As it was not the first time that he did this,
The Secret Agent |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: devotion of woman. Finally, some unexpected sally in Caroline's light
prattle lifted the last veil that concealed the real youth and genuine
character of the Stranger's physiognomy; he seemed to bid farewell to
the ideas that haunted him, and showed the natural liveliness that lay
beneath the solemnity of his expression.
Their conversation had insensibly become so intimate, that by the time
when the carriage stopped at the first houses of the straggling
village of Saint-Leu, Caroline was calling the gentleman Monsieur
Roger. Then for the first time the old mother awoke.
"Caroline, she has heard everything!" said Roger suspiciously in the
girl's ear.
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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 Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll: CHAPTER 13.
A VISIT TO DOGLAND.
"There's a house, away there to the left," said Sylvie, after we had
walked what seemed to me about fifty miles. "Let's go and ask for a
night's lodging."
"It looks a very comfable house," Bruno said, as we turned into the
road leading up to it. "I doos hope the Dogs will be kind to us,
I is so tired and hungry!"
A Mastiff, dressed in a scarlet collar, and carrying a musket,
was pacing up and down, like a sentinel, in front of the entrance.
He started, on catching sight of the children, and came forwards to meet
Sylvie and Bruno |
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 Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: "'Yes, why should I die here in this awful darkness? They are warm, they
melt my frozen blood!' and he stretched out his hands to take them.
"Then in a moment there arose before him the image of the thing he had
loved, and his hand dropped to his side.
"'Oh, come to us!' they cried.
"But he buried his face.
"'You dazzle my eyes,' he cried, 'you make my heart warm; but you cannot
give me what I desire. I will wait here--wait till I die. Go!'
"He covered his face with his hands and would not listen; and when he
looked up again they were two twinkling stars, that vanished in the
distance.
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