| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: One door of the carriage was already torn off.
No sooner did the men about the fire hear the tread of the major's
horse than a hoarse cry, the cry of famine, arose,--
"A horse! a horse!"
Those voices formed but one voice.
"Back! back! look out for yourself!" cried two or three soldiers,
aiming at the mare. Philippe threw himself before his animal, crying
out,--
"You villains! I'll throw you into your own fire. There are plenty of
dead horses up there. Go and fetch them."
"Isn't he a joker, that officer! One, two--get out of the way," cried
|
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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: a theory of the anchored ship. His dominant trait was to take all things
into earnest consideration. He was of a painstaking turn of mind.
As he used to say, he "liked to account to himself" for practically
everything that came in his way, down to a miserable scorpion
he had found in his cabin a week before. The why and the wherefore
of that scorpion--how it got on board and came to select his room
rather than the pantry (which was a dark place and more what a scorpion
would be partial to), and how on earth it managed to drown itself
in the inkwell of his writing desk--had exercised him infinitely.
The ship within the islands was much more easily accounted for;
and just as we were about to rise from table he made his pronouncement.
The Secret Sharer |
