| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: through which the silver estuary winds onward toward the sea.
Beneath him, on his right, the Torridge, like a land-locked lake,
sleeps broad and bright between the old park of Tapeley and the
charmed rock of the Hubbastone, where, seven hundred years ago, the
Norse rovers landed to lay siege to Kenwith Castle, a mile away on
his left hand; and not three fields away, are the old stones of
"The Bloody Corner," where the retreating Danes, cut off from their
ships, made their last fruitless stand against the Saxon sheriff
and the valiant men of Devon. Within that charmed rock, so
Torridge boatmen tell, sleeps now the old Norse Viking in his
leaden coffin, with all his fairy treasure and his crown of gold;
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain: never."
A long silence followed; both were sunk in thought. At last the
wife looked up and said:
"I know what you are thinking, Edward."
Richards had the embarrassed look of a person who is caught.
"I am ashamed to confess it, Mary, but--"
"It's no matter, Edward, I was thinking the same question myself."
"I hope so. State it."
"You were thinking, if a body could only guess out WHAT THE REMARK
WAS that Goodson made to the stranger."
"It's perfectly true. I feel guilty and ashamed. And you?"
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: bathed in flame the young king's brow. "This is the dawn of
my reign," murmured Louis XIV. "It's a presage sent by the
Almighty."
CHAPTER 50
The First Day of the Royalty of Louis XIV
In the morning, the news of the death of the cardinal was
spread through the castle, and thence speedily reached the
city. The ministers Fouquet, Lyonne, and Letellier entered
la salle des seances, to hold a council. The king sent for
them immediately. "Messieurs," said he, "as long as monsieur
le cardinal lived, I allowed him to govern my affairs; but
Ten Years Later |
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 Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: figure in its upper part, she must have had a beautiful
neck and shoulders; but since her infancy nobody had
ever seen them. Had she been put into a low dress
she would have run and thrust her head into a bush.
Yet she was not a shy girl by any means; it was merely
her instinct to draw the line dividing the seen from the
unseen higher than they do it in towns.
That the girl's thoughts hovered about her face
and form as soon as she caught Oak's eyes conning the
same page was natural, and almost certain. The self-
consciousness shown would have been vanity if a little
Far From the Madding Crowd |
