| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot: Jug jug jug jug jug jug
So rudely forc'd.
Tereu
Unreal City
Under the brown fog of a winter noon
Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants 210
C.i.f. London: documents at sight,
Asked me in demotic French
To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.
The Waste Land |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: two-legged creature. She has never seen your resigned smile when
the little two-legged creature, interrogated, sternly, "What are
you doing to the good dog?" answers, with a wide, innocent stare:
"Nothing. Only loving him, mamma dear!"
The general's daughter does not know the secret terms of
self-imposed tasks, good dog, the pain that may lurk in the very
rewards of rigid self-command. But we have lived together many
years. We have grown older, too; and though our work is not
quite done yet we may indulge now and then in a little
introspection before the fire--meditate on the art of bringing up
babies and on the perfect delight of writing tales where so many
A Personal Record |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: and women cried; and it was very still in there, and solemn,
and old Uncle Silas, poor thing, he give a groan right
out so everybody heard him. Then Brace he went on,
"Saturday, September 2d, he didn't come home to supper.
By-and-by I got a little uneasy, and one of my niggers
went over to this prisoner's place, but come back and
said he warn't there. So I got uneasier and uneasier,
and couldn't rest. I went to bed, but I couldn't sleep;
and turned out, away late in the night, and went wandering
over to this prisoner's place and all around about there
a good while, hoping I would run across my poor brother,
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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 Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: rather to him that the Governor would have addressed him-
self had he known who the pretended merchant of Irkutsk
really was. Kamsk, in fact, by its very situation seemed
to be outside the Siberian world and the grave events which
troubled it.
Besides, Michael Strogoff showed himself little, if at all.
To be unperceived was not now enough for him: he would
have wished to be invisible. The experience of the past
made him more and more circumspect in the present and
the future. Therefore he secluded himself, and not caring
to traverse the streets of the village, he would not even leave
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