| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: pale chocolate-colored stone, squaring themselves against the deep
blue sky. Here, outside, in the light and the shade and the heat,
there was a great tinkling of the bells of innumerable streetcars,
and a constant strolling and shuffling and rustling of many pedestrians,
a large proportion of whom were young women in Pompadour-looking dresses.
Within, the place was cool and vaguely lighted, with the plash of water,
the odor of flowers, and the flitting of French waiters, as I have said,
upon soundless carpets.
"It's rather like Paris, you know," said the younger of our two travelers."
"It's like Paris--only more so," his companion rejoined.
"I suppose it's the French waiters," said the first speaker.
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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 The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne:
The effect of the symbol -- or rather, of the position in respect
to society that was indicated by it -- on the mind of Hester
Prynne herself was powerful and peculiar. All the light and
graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this
red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and
harsh outline, which might have been repulsive had she possessed
friends or companions to be repelled by it Even the
attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. It
might be partly owing to the studied austerity of her dress, and
partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners. It was a sad
The Scarlet Letter |
