| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: Here I may state, however, that within a few days Marie and everyone
else in the camp knew the story in detail, except perhaps Marais, to
whom no one spoke of his nephew. Evidently Vrouw Prinsloo had found
herself unable to keep secret such an example of the villainy of her
aversion, Pereira. So she told her daughter, who told the others
quickly enough, though I gathered that some of them set down what had
happened to accident. Bad as they knew Pereira to be, they could not
believe that he was guilty of so black a crime.
About a week later the rest of us started from Marais's camp, a place
that, notwithstanding the sadness of many of its associations, I confess
I left with some regret. The trek before us, although not so very long,
Marie |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: which belonged to the winter pleasures; her spirits rose
under their influence; and like Mrs Musgrove, she was feeling,
though not saying, that after being long in the country, nothing could be
so good for her as a little quiet cheerfulness.
Anne did not share these feelings. She persisted in a very determined,
though very silent disinclination for Bath; caught the first dim view
of the extensive buildings, smoking in rain, without any wish
of seeing them better; felt their progress through the streets to be,
however disagreeable, yet too rapid; for who would be glad to see her
when she arrived? And looked back, with fond regret, to the bustles
of Uppercross and the seclusion of Kellynch.
Persuasion |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne: ill at ease, towards the Pont Neuf.
Of all the bridges which ever were built, the whole world who have
pass'd over the Pont Neuf must own, that it is the noblest, - the
finest, - the grandest, - the lightest, - the longest, - the
broadest, that ever conjoin'd land and land together upon the face
of the terraqueous globe.
[BY THIS IT SEEMS AS IF THE AUTHOR OF THE FRAGMENT HAD NOT BEEN A
FRENCHMAN.]
The worst fault which divines and the doctors of the Sorbonne can
allege against it is, that if there is but a capfull of wind in or
about Paris, 'tis more blasphemously SACRE DIEU'D there than in any
|
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 A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: way, the driver stood up in his seat and shouted to her and so did the
postilion, while the four horses, which he could not hold back,
accelerated their pace; the two leaders were almost upon her; with a
jerk of the reins he threw them to one side, but, furious at the
incident, he lifted his big whip and lashed her from her head to her
feet with such violence that she fell to the ground unconscious.
Her first thought, when she recovered her senses, was to open the
basket. Loulou was unharmed. She felt a sting on her right cheek; when
she took her hand away it was red, for the blood was flowing.
She sat down on a pile of stones, and sopped her cheek with her
handkerchief; then she ate a crust of bread she had put in her basket,
A Simple Soul |
