| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: Nothing more came.
"What's the matter? . . . Can't you tell
after being nearly two years in the ship?" I ad-
dressed him sharply.
He looked as startled for a moment as though he
had discovered my presence only that very mo-
ment. But this passed off almost at once. He
put on an air of indifference. But I suppose he
thought it better to say something. He said that a
ship needed, just like a man, the chance to show the
best she could do, and that this ship had never had
The Shadow Line |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: befriended him.
"If you were as good-looking as yonder young fellow, I would give you
your money's worth," a woman said, pointing out Lucien to an old man.
Lucien slunk through the crowd like a blind man's dog, following the
stream in a state of stupefaction and excitement difficult to
describe. Importuned by glances and white-rounded contours, dazzled by
the audacious display of bared throat and bosom, he gripped his roll
of manuscript tightly lest somebody should steal it--innocent that he
was!
"Well, what is it, sir!" he exclaimed, thinking, when some one caught
him by the arm, that his poetry had proved too great a temptation to
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: Her hair was as a wet fleece of gold, and each separate hair as a
thread of fine gold in a cup of glass. Her body was as white
ivory, and her tail was of silver and pearl. Silver and pearl was
her tail, and the green weeds of the sea coiled round it; and like
sea-shells were her ears, and her lips were like sea-coral. The
cold waves dashed over her cold breasts, and the salt glistened
upon her eyelids.
So beautiful was she that when the young Fisherman saw her he was
filled with wonder, and he put out his hand and drew the net close
to him, and leaning over the side he clasped her in his arms. And
when he touched her, she gave a cry like a startled sea-gull, and
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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 Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: thoughts were interrupted by the coughing of his father, who was
lying on the oven.
The old man, on seeing Ivan, came down off the oven, and slowly
approaching his son seated himself on the bench beside him,
looking at him as though ashamed. He continued to cough as he
leaned on the table and said, "Well, did they sentence him?"
"Yes, they sentenced him to receive twenty lashes," replied Ivan.
On hearing this the old man sorrowfully shook his head, and said:
"This is very bad, Ivan, and what is the meaning of it all? It
is indeed very bad, but not so bad for Gavryl as for yourself.
Well, suppose his sentence IS carried out, and he gets the twenty
The Kreutzer Sonata |
