| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: ribbon in Darnford. This was what you did in his
country. You bought a ribbon at a Jew's stall on
a fair-day. I don't suppose the girl knew what to
do with it, but he seemed to think that his honoura-
ble intentions could not be mistaken.
"It was only when he declared his purpose to
get married that I fully understood how, for a hun-
dred futile and inappreciable reasons, how--shall
I say odious?--he was to all the countryside.
Every old woman in the village was up in arms.
Smith, coming upon him near the farm, promised
Amy Foster |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: fitly!"
A certain bewilderment, for our hero, disengaged itself from these
remarks: they struck him as a contradiction, a retractation,
strange on the part of a man who hadn't the excuse of witlessness.
He had certainly not expected his correspondent to rejoice in the
death of his wife, and it was perfectly in order that the rupture
of a tie of more than twenty years should have left him sore. But
if she had been so clear a blessing what in the name of consistency
had the dear man meant by turning him upside down that night - by
dosing him to that degree, at the most sensitive hour of his life,
with the doctrine of renunciation? If Mrs. St. George was an
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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 The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: As broken glass no cement can redress,
So beauty blemish'd once's for ever lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.
XIV.
Good night, good rest. Ah, neither be my share:
She bade good night that kept my rest away;
And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd with care,
To descant on the doubts of my decay.
'Farewell,' quoth she, 'and come again tomorrow:
Fare well I could not, for I supp'd with sorrow.
Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile,
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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 Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: an itinerant singer, a circus-rider, when I used to vault like Leotard,
and dance on a rope like Blondin. Then I got to be a professor of gymnastics,
so as to make better use of my talents; and then I was a sergeant fireman
at Paris, and assisted at many a big fire. But I quitted France
five years ago, and, wishing to taste the sweets of domestic life,
took service as a valet here in England. Finding myself out of place,
and hearing that Monsieur Phileas Fogg was the most exact and settled
gentleman in the United Kingdom, I have come to monsieur in the hope
of living with him a tranquil life, and forgetting even the name
of Passepartout."
"Passepartout suits me," responded Mr. Fogg. "You are well recommended
Around the World in 80 Days |
