| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: sufficiently convince me how completely I was banished and banned,
he added the force of contrast; and this I am sure he did not by
force, but on principle.
The night before he left home, happening to see him walking in the
garden about sunset, and remembering, as I looked at him, that this
man, alienated as he now was, had once saved my life, and that we
were near relations, I was moved to make a last attempt to regain
his friendship. I went out and approached him as he stood leaning
over the little gate; I spoke to the point at once.
"St. John, I am unhappy because you are still angry with me. Let us
be friends."
Jane Eyre |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: want to leave that sum of money in my room."
"But, surely, you are not going to carry it with you!" exclaimed his
mother, in alarm. "Suppose you should lose a sum like that! Hadn't you
better give it to Monsieur Godeschal for safe keeping?"
"Godeschal!" cried Oscar, who thought his mother's suggestion
excellent.
But Godeschal, who, like all clerks, has his time to himself on
Sundays, from ten to two o'clock, had already departed.
When his mother left him, Oscar went to lounge upon the boulevards
until it was time to go to Georges Marest's breakfast. Why not display
those beautiful clothes which he wore with a pride and joy which all
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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 Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: club-windows. To those perpetual jokes about marriage, which
are showered with such graceful courtesy about the path of
widowers, he had no reply; or at most would only admit that he
needed some elegant woman to preside over his establishment,
and that he had better take her young, as having habits less
fixed. But in his secret soul he treasured every tone of this
girl's voice, every glance of her eye, and would have kept in a
casket of gold and diamonds the little fragrant glove she once
let fall. He envied the penniless and brainless boys, who, with
ready gallantry, pushed by him to escort her to her carriage;
and he lay awake at night to form into words the answer he
|
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 Time Machine by H. G. Wells: stratification, less and less frequent. So, in the end, above
ground you must have the Haves, pursuing pleasure and comfort and
beauty, and below ground the Have-nots, the Workers getting
continually adapted to the conditions of their labour. Once they
were there, they would no doubt have to pay rent, and not a
little of it, for the ventilation of their caverns; and if they
refused, they would starve or be suffocated for arrears. Such of
them as were so constituted as to be miserable and rebellious
would die; and, in the end, the balance being permanent, the
survivors would become as well adapted to the conditions of
underground life, and as happy in their way, as the Upper-world
The Time Machine |
