| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: oar, and swung around and went a-floating down,
stern first, about two mile, and saddle-baggsed on the
wreck, and the ferryman and the nigger woman and
the horses was all lost, but Miss Hooker she made a
grab and got aboard the wreck. Well, about an hour
after dark we come along down in our trading-scow,
and it was so dark we didn't notice the wreck till we
was right on it; and so WE saddle-baggsed; but all of
us was saved but Bill Whipple -- and oh, he WAS the
best cretur ! -- I most wish 't it had been me, I do."
"My George! It's the beatenest thing I ever
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: to meet it, how many excursions they would have attempted, either to the
downs or to Tadorn's Fens! Game would have been easily approached, and the
chase would certainly have been most productive. But Cyrus Harding
considered it of importance that no one should injure his health, for he
had need of all his hands, and his advice was followed.
But it must be said, that the one who was most impatient of this
imprisonment, after Pencroft perhaps, was Top. The faithful dog found
Granite House very narrow. He ran backwards and forwards from one room to
another, showing in his way how weary he was of being shut up. Harding
often remarked that when he approached the dark well which communicated
with the sea, and of which the orifice opened at the back of the storeroom,
The Mysterious Island |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Frances Waldeaux by Rebecca Davis: dimly through the mist, her eyes fixed as if she were
studying the sky line.
"George," she said. "You don't understand. You will come
to me always. But that woman never shall cross my
threshold."
"Mother! Do you mean what you say?"
It was a man, not a shuffling boy that spoke now. "Do
you mean that we are not to go to you to-morrow? Not to
go home in October? Never----"
"Your home is open to you. But Pauline Felix's child is
no more to me than a wild beast--or a snake in the grass,
|
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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: the Sheriff following him, all too perplexed in mind to speak.
So they went forward until they came to within a furlong of
the spot where the Sheriff's companions were waiting for him.
Then Robin Hood gave the sack of silver back to the Sheriff.
"Take thou thine own again," he said, "and hearken to me,
good Sheriff, take thou a piece of advice with it.
Try thy servants well ere thou dost engage them again so readily."
Then, turning, he left the other standing bewildered,
with the sack in his hands.
The company that waited for the Sheriff were all amazed to see him
come out of the forest bearing a heavy sack upon his shoulders;
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
