| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: Miserable devils that have no business to live at all.
He wouldn't do his duty and wouldn't let anybody else do theirs.
But what's the good of talking! You know well enough the sort
of ill-conditioned snarling cur--"
He appealed to me as if our experiences had been as identical as our clothes.
And I knew well enough the pestiferous danger of such a character where there
are no means of legal repression. And I knew well enough also that my double
there was no homicidal ruffian. I did not think of asking him for details,
and he told me the story roughly in brusque, disconnected sentences.
I needed no more. I saw it all going on as though I were myself inside
that other sleeping suit.
The Secret Sharer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: some token of deep astonishment and alarm; but, being previously
prepared, I preserved an aspect of stoical indifference. His
countenance fell as he met my steady gaze, and he turned away in
very obvious disappointment, and walked up to the fire-place, where
he stood in an attitude of undisguised dejection, leaning against
the chimney-piece with his forehead sunk upon his arm.
'Where do you want to go, Arthur?' said I.
'To London,' replied he, gravely.
'What for?' I asked.
'Because I cannot be happy here.'
'Why not?'
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: fairer than Atergatis, Queen of the Fishes; so she in her
wrath sent the sea-floods, and her brother the Fire King sent
the earthquakes, and wasted all the land, and after the
floods a monster bred of the slime, who devours all living
things. And now he must devour me, guiltless though I am -
me who never harmed a living thing, nor saw a fish upon the
shore but I gave it life, and threw it back into the sea; for
in our land we eat no fish, for fear of Atergatis their
queen. Yet the priests say that nothing but my blood can
atone for a sin which I never committed.'
But Perseus laughed, and said, 'A sea-monster? I have fought
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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 The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: glimpses? Oh! to see for a moment, a single moment, the divine
completed nature,--the ideal,--I would give my all of fortune. Yes; I
would search thee out, celestial Beauty! in thy farthest sphere. Like
Orpheus, I would go down to hell to win back the life of art--"
"Let us go," said Porbus to Poussin; "he neither sees nor hears us any
longer."
"Let us go to his atelier," said the wonder-struck young man.
"Oh! the old dragon has guarded the entrance. His treasure is out of
our reach. I have not waited for your wish or urging to attempt an
assault on the mystery."
"Mystery! then there is a mystery?"
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