| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: and I entered we found a little company of our acquaintances seated
together at the triangular foremost table. A more forlorn party, in
more dismal circumstances, it would be hard to imagine. The motion
here in the ship's nose was very violent; the uproar of the sea often
overpoweringly loud. The yellow flicker of the lantern spun round
and round and tossed the shadows in masses. The air was hot, but it
struck a chill from its foetor.
From all round in the dark bunks, the scarcely human noises of the
sick joined into a kind of farmyard chorus. In the midst, these five
friends of mine were keeping up what heart they could in company.
Singing was their refuge from discomfortable thoughts and sensations.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce: temporary platform was an officer in the uniform of his rank,
armed. He was a captain. A sentinel at each end of the
bridge stood with his rifle in the position known as
"support," that is to say, vertical in front of the left
shoulder, the hammer resting on the forearm thrown straight
across the chest -- a formal and unnatural position,
enforcing an erect carriage of the body. It did not appear
to be the duty of these two men to know what was occurring at
the center of the bridge; they merely blockaded the two ends
of the foot planking that traversed it.
Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight; the railroad
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: Two other women, all clad in lavender, appeared in the doorway.
They also bent over the blue and white bundle. They also said
something about the darling coming to see his aunties. Then
there ensued the softest chorus of lady-laughter, as if at some
hidden joke.
"Come in, Eudora dear," said Amelia Lancaster. "Yes, come in,
Eudora dear," said Anna Lancaster. "Yes, come in, Eudora dear,"
said Sophia Willing.
Sophia looked much older than her sisters, but with that
exception the resemblance between all three was startling. They
always dressed exactly alike, too, in silken fabric of bluish
|
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 In the Cage by Henry James: should even suppose it to be the very first time and the very
oddest chance: this was while she still wondered if he would
identify or notice her. His original attention had not, she
instinctively knew, been for the young woman at Cocker's; it had
only been for any young woman who might advance to the tune of her
not troubling the quiet air, and in fact the poetic hour, with
ugliness. Ah but then, and just as she had reached the door, came
his second observation, a long light reach with which, visibly and
quite amusedly, he recalled and placed her. They were on different
sides, but the street, narrow and still, had only made more of a
stage for the small momentary drama. It was not over, besides, it
|
