| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: moment when the hand of the old man fell; after which he disappeared,
swiftly as a bird. The lady lowered her eyes to her book and tried to
seem calm; but she could not prevent her face from blushing and her
heart from beating with unnatural violence. The old lord saw the
unusual crimson on the cheeks, forehead, even the eyelids of his wife.
He looked about him cautiously, but seeing no one to distrust, he said
to his wife:--
"What are you thinking of, my dear?"
"The smell of the incense turns me sick," she replied.
"It is particularly bad to-day?" he asked.
In spite of this sarcastic query, the wily old man pretended to
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: had eaten in this foreign land. She had been
neither fierce nor angry, nor frightened. Her face
he remembered as the only comprehensible face
amongst all these faces that were as closed, as mys-
terious, and as mute as the faces of the dead who
are possessed of a knowledge beyond the compre-
hension of the living. I wonder whether the mem-
ory of her compassion prevented him from cutting
his throat. But there! I suppose I am an old sen-
timentalist, and forget the instinctive love of life
which it takes all the strength of an uncommon de-
Amy Foster |
