| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: Matthew."
"I think you ought to let Anne go," repeated Matthew firmly.
Argument was not his strong point, but holding fast to his
opinion certainly was. Marilla gave a gasp of helplessness and
took refuge in silence. The next morning, when Anne was washing
the breakfast dishes in the pantry, Matthew paused on his way out
to the barn to say to Marilla again:
"I think you ought to let Anne go, Marilla."
For a moment Marilla looked things not lawful to be uttered.
Then she yielded to the inevitable and said tartly:
"Very well, she can go, since nothing else'll please you."
Anne of Green Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: Christian woman was a captive in the house, and that it was she who
had been so good to us; but the whiteness of the hand and the
bracelets we had perceived made us dismiss that idea, though we
thought it might be one of the Christian renegades whom their
masters very often take as lawful wives, and gladly, for they prefer
them to the women of their own nation. In all our conjectures we
were wide of the truth; so from that time forward our sole
occupation was watching and gazing at the window where the cross had
appeared to us, as if it were our pole-star; but at least fifteen days
passed without our seeing either it or the hand, or any other sign and
though meanwhile we endeavoured with the utmost pains to ascertain who
Don Quixote |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: the end, Chinesed the Tartars, and will, it is to be hoped, Chinese
the English. Poland ought to have Polonized Russia. Poniatowski tried
to do so in the least favorable portion of the empire; but as a king
he was little understood,--because, possibly, he did not fully
understand himself.
But how could the Parisians avoid disliking an unfortunate people who
were the cause of that shameful falsehood enacted during the famous
review at which all Paris declared its will to succor Poland? The
Poles were held up to them as the allies of the republican party, and
they never once remembered that Poland was a republic of aristocrats.
From that day forth the bourgeoisie treated with base contempt the
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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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: without dropping her scent-bottle more than twice.
All this time Lord Arthur Savile had remained standing by the
fireplace, with the same feeling of dread over him, the same
sickening sense of coming evil. He smiled sadly at his sister, as
she swept past him on Lord Plymdale's arm, looking lovely in her
pink brocade and pearls, and he hardly heard Lady Windermere when
she called to him to follow her. He thought of Sybil Merton, and
the idea that anything could come between them made his eyes dim
with tears.
Looking at him, one would have said that Nemesis had stolen the
shield of Pallas, and shown him the Gorgon's head. He seemed
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