| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: their passions were Zikali's tools, so he himself was the tool of some
unseen Power that used him and us to accomplish its design. Which, I
suppose, is fatalism, or, in other words, all these things happened
because they must happen. A poor conclusion to reach after so much
thought and striving, and not complimentary to man and his boasted
powers of free will; still, one to which many of us are often driven,
especially if we have lived among savages, where such dramas work
themselves out openly and swiftly, unhidden from our eyes by the veils
and subterfuges of civilisation. At least, there is this comfort about
it--that, if we are but feathers blown by the wind, how can the
individual feather be blamed because it did not travel against, turn or
Child of Storm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: around him, now at one, now at another of the beloved circle;
but the pause was not long: in the elation of her
spirits Lady Bertram became talkative, and what were
the sensations of her children upon hearing her say,
"How do you think the young people have been amusing
themselves lately, Sir Thomas? They have been acting.
We have been all alive with acting."
"Indeed! and what have you been acting?"
"Oh! they'll tell you all about it."
"The _all_ will soon be told," cried Tom hastily,
and with affected unconcern; "but it is not worth
Mansfield Park |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: He would ask him and try.
"Basil," he said, coming over quite close and looking him straight
in the face, "we have each of us a secret. Let me know yours,
and I shall tell you mine. What was your reason for refusing
to exhibit my picture?"
The painter shuddered in spite of himself. "Dorian, if I told you,
you might like me less than you do, and you would certainly laugh
at me. I could not bear your doing either of those two things.
If you wish me never to look at your picture again, I am content.
I have always you to look at. If you wish the best work I have ever done
to be hidden from the world, I am satisfied. Your friendship is dearer
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
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 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: lips just made it intelligible that she left "her kind
remembrance for her absent friend." But with this
approach to his name ended all possibility of restraining
her feelings; and, hiding her face as well as she could
with her handkerchief, she darted across the hall,
jumped into the chaise, and in a moment was driven from the door.
CHAPTER 29
Catherine was too wretched to be fearful. The journey
in itself had no terrors for her; and she began it without
either dreading its length or feeling its solitariness.
Leaning back in one comer of the carriage, in a violent
Northanger Abbey |
