| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Edingburgh Picturesque Notes by Robert Louis Stevenson: voice, its dull cars, and its narrow range of sight. If
you could see as people are to see in heaven, if you had
eyes such as you can fancy for a superior race, if you
could take clear note of the objects of vision, not only
a few yards, but a few miles from where you stand:- think
how agreeably your sight would be entertained, how
pleasantly your thoughts would be diversified, as you
walked the Edinburgh streets! For you might pause, in
some business perplexity, in the midst of the city
traffic, and perhaps catch the eye of a shepherd as he
sat down to breathe upon a heathery shoulder of the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: looks, and accents with which the word fiddlestick may be pronounced in all
such causes as this, every one of 'em impressing a sense and meaning as
different from the other, as dirt from cleanliness--That Casuists (for it
is an affair of conscience on that score) reckon up no less than fourteen
thousand in which you may do either right or wrong.
Mrs. Wadman hit upon the fiddlestick, which summoned up all my uncle Toby's
modest blood into his cheeks--so feeling within himself that he had somehow
or other got beyond his depth, he stopt short; and without entering further
either into the pains or pleasures of matrimony, he laid his hand upon his
heart, and made an offer to take them as they were, and share them along
with her.
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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 Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: levelled by nature. A branch of the "grand trunk" led off southward to Denver,
the capital of Colorado. The country round about is rich in gold and silver,
and more than fifty thousand inhabitants are already settled there.
Thirteen hundred and eighty-two miles had been passed over from San Francisco,
in three days and three nights; four days and nights more would probably
bring them to New York. Phileas Fogg was not as yet behind-hand.
During the night Camp Walbach was passed on the left; Lodge Pole Creek
ran parallel with the road, marking the boundary between the territories
of Wyoming and Colorado. They entered Nebraska at eleven, passed near
Sedgwick, and touched at Julesburg, on the southern branch of the Platte River.
It was here that the Union Pacific Railroad was inaugurated on
Around the World in 80 Days |
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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: well-shod feet the dryer spots upon the pavements.
The restless doors of saloons, clashing to and fro, disclosed
animated rows of men before bars and hurrying barkeepers.
A concert hall gave to the street faint sounds of swift,
machine-like music, as if a group of phantom musicians were
hastening.
A tall young man, smoking a cigarette with a sublime air,
strolled near the girl. He had on evening dress, a moustache, a
chrysanthemum, and a look of ennui, all of which he kept carefully
under his eye. Seeing the girl walk on as if such a young man as
he was not in existence, he looked back transfixed with interest.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
