| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: at these papers with a peculiar expression of disquietude.
"I do believe," said he, soberly, "or, at least, I could believe,
if I chose, that there is a devil in this pile of blotted papers.
You have read them, and know what I mean,--that conception in
which I endeavored to embody the character of a fiend, as
represented in our traditions and the written records of
witchcraft. Oh, I have a horror of what was created in my own
brain, and shudder at the manuscripts in which I gave that dark
idea a sort of material existence! Would they were out of my
sight!"
"And of mine, too," thought I.
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: Mexican hairless,--strange creatures that rarely put nose out of
doors or set foot to ground. On the other hand, there were the fox
terriers, a score of them at least, who yelped fearful promises at
Toots and Ysabel looking out of the windows at them and protected
by a legion of housemaids armed with brooms and mops.
But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm
was his. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with
the Judge's sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge's
daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry
nights he lay at the Judge's feet before the roaring library fire;
he carried the Judge's grandsons on his back, or rolled them in
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: go to Pitman? what right had Pitman to open it?'
'If you come to that, Morris, what have you done with the
colossal Hercules?' asked Michael.
'He went through it with the meat-axe,' said John. 'It's all in
spillikins in the back garden.'
'Well, there's one thing,' snapped Morris; 'there's my uncle
again, my fraudulent trustee. He's mine, anyway. And the tontine
too. I claim the tontine; I claim it now. I believe Uncle
Masterman's dead.'
'I must put a stop to this nonsense,' said Michael, 'and that for
ever. You say too near the truth. In one sense your uncle is
|
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 Chouans by Honore de Balzac: Francine, impatiently.
"Distinction!" said the ringing and ironical voice of the person who
had just come down the stairway. "My good fellow, that strikes me as a
very poor inn joke; but if it's the company of this young female
citizen that you want to give us, we should be fools to refuse it. In
my mother's absence, I accept," he added, striking the astonished inn-
keeper on the shoulder.
The charming heedlessness of youth disguised the haughty insolence of
the words, which drew the attention of every one present to the new-
comer. The landlord at once assumed the countenance of Pilate washing
his hands of the blood of that just man; he slid back two steps to
The Chouans |
