| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: Martineau's tentatives were ill-chosen. At any rate he would
not rise to any conversational bait that the doctor could
devise. The doctor found this the more regrettable because it
seemed to him that there was much to be worked upon in this
Martin Leeds affair. He was inclined to think that she and
Sir Richmond were unduly obsessed by the idea that they had
to stick together because of the child, because of the look
of the thing and so forth, and that really each might be
struggling against a very strong impulse indeed to break off
the affair. It seemed evident to the doctor that they jarred
upon and annoyed each other extremely. On the whole
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: the name of the person who ought to have read that letter."
"What! can it be STILL Madame de Nucingen?" cried Madame de Listomere,
more eager to penetrate that secret than to revenge herself for the
impertinence of the young man's speeches.
Eugene colored. A man must be more than twenty-five years of age not
to blush at being taxed with a fidelity that women laugh at--in order,
perhaps, not to show that they envy it. However, he replied with
tolerable self-possession:--
"Why not, madame?"
Such are the blunders we all make at twenty-five.
This speech caused a violent commotion in Madame de Listomere's bosom;
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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 Hamlet by William Shakespeare: Qu. Nay but Ophelia
Ophe. Pray you marke.
White his Shrow'd as the Mountaine Snow
Qu. Alas, looke heere my Lord
Ophe. Larded with sweet Flowers:
Which bewept to the graue did not go,
With true-loue showres
King. How do ye, pretty Lady?
Ophe. Well, God dil'd you. They say the Owle was
a Bakers daughter. Lord, wee know what we are, but
know not what we may be. God be at your Table
Hamlet |
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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: near the place where I was first taken up, had seen a great black
substance lying on the around, very oddly shaped, extending its
edges round, as wide as his majesty's bedchamber, and rising up
in the middle as high as a man; that it was no living creature,
as they at first apprehended, for it lay on the grass without
motion; and some of them had walked round it several times; that,
by mounting upon each other's shoulders, they had got to the top,
which was flat and even, and, stamping upon it, they found that
it was hollow within; that they humbly conceived it might be
something belonging to the man-mountain; and if his majesty
pleased, they would undertake to bring it with only five horses.
Gulliver's Travels |
