| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. - My love
for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it,
I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for
Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little
visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He's
always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am
always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of
our separation again: it is impracticable; and - '
She paused, and hid her face in the folds of my gown; but I jerked
it forcibly away. I was out of patience with her folly!
'If I can make any sense of your nonsense, Miss,' I said, 'it only
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: high old settee, rudely carved with figures and Gothic
lettering, flanked it on either side; there was a hinge table
and a stone bench in the chimney corner, and above the arch
hung guns, axes, lanterns, and great sheaves of rusty keys.
Jonathan looked about him, holding up the lantern, and
shrugged his shoulders, with a pitying grimace. 'Here it
is,' he said. 'See the damp on the floor, look at the moss;
where there's moss you may be sure that it's rheumaticky.
Try and get near that fire for to warm yourself; it'll blow
the coat off your back. And with a young gentleman with a
face like yours, as pale as a tallow-candle, I'd be afeard of
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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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: who used the word atom in their stead.'
A moment will be granted me to indicate my own view of Faraday's
position here. The word 'atom' was not used in the stead of
definite proportions, equivalents, or primes. These terms
represented facts that followed from, but were not equivalent to,
the atomic theory. Facts cannot satisfy the mind: and the law of
definite combining proportions being once established, the question
'why should combination take place according to that law?' is
inevitable. Dalton answered this question by the enunciation of the
Atomic Theory, the fundamental idea of which is, in my opinion,
perfectly secure. The objection of Faraday to Dalton might be urged
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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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: you used to? He has tamed you! Who keeps up these
flower-beds?"
"I come out on Sundays, when father is alone, and read the
Bohemian papers to him. But I am never here when the bar is open.
What have you two been doing?"
"Talking, as I told you. I've been telling him about my
travels. I find I can't talk much at home, not even to Eric."
Clara reached up and poked with her riding-whip at a white
moth that was fluttering in the sunlight among the vine leaves. "I
suppose you will never tell me about all those things."
"Where can I tell them? Not in Olaf's house, certainly.
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
