| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: found Lady Forester resolutely unmoved and determined when the
moment of departure arrived. Ill satisfied with the expedition,
but determined not to leave her sister at such a crisis, Lady
Bothwell accompanied Lady Forester through more than one obscure
street and lane, the servant walking before, and acting as their
guide. At length he suddenly turned into a narrow court, and
knocked at an arched door which seemed to belong to a building of
some antiquity. It opened, though no one appeared to act as
porter; and the servant, stepping aside from the entrance,
motioned the ladies to enter. They had no sooner done so than it
shut, and excluded their guide. The two ladies found themselves
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: eagerly devour the marrow of the koodoo and other antelopes raw,
as a matter of course. Some of our northern Indians eat raw the
marrow of the Arctic reindeer, as well as various other parts,
including the summits of the antlers, as long as they are soft.
And herein, perchance, they have stolen a march on the cooks of
Paris. They get what usually goes to feed the fire. This is
probably better than stall-fed beef and slaughterhouse pork to
make a man of. Give me a wildness whose glance no civilization
can endure--as if we lived on the marrow of koodoos devoured raw.
There are some intervals which border the strain of the wood
thrush, to which I would migrate--wild lands where no settler has
Walking |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: she was to marry were strained. All the weight, however, that she
left me to throw was a sufficient implication of the weight HE had
thrown in vain. Oh she knew the question of character was immense,
and that one couldn't entertain any plan for making merit
comfortable without running the gauntlet of that terrible
procession of interrogation-points which, like a young ladies'
school out for a walk, hooked their uniform noses at the tail of
governess Conduct. But were we absolutely to hold that there was
never, never, never an exception, never, never, never an occasion
for liberal acceptance, for clever charity, for suspended pedantry-
-for letting one side, in short, outbalance another? When Miss
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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 Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: dreaming of horrors."
But I had followed the banks of the Elbe and passed the town. After
passing the port too, I had reached the Altona road. I was led by a
presentiment, soon to be realised; for shortly I espied my little
Gräuben bravely returning with her light step to Hamburg.
"Gräuben!" I cried from afar off.
The young girl stopped, rather frightened perhaps to hear her name
called after her on the high road. Ten yards more, and I had joined
her.
"Axel!" she cried surprised. "What! have you come to meet me? Is this
why you are here, sir?"
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
