| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: indulgence:--
"If we desire to continue friends let there be no more MISTAKES, of
which it is impossible that I should be the dupe."
"Upon my honor, madame, you are so--far more than you think," replied
Eugene.
"What are you talking about?" asked Monsieur de Listomere, who, for
the last minute, had been listening to the conversation, the meaning
of which he could not penetrate.
"Oh! nothing that would interest you," replied his wife.
Monsieur de Listomere tranquilly returned to the reading of his paper,
and presently said:--
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: account of Faraday's private relations. A hasty glance at the work
shows me that the reverent devotion of the biographer has turned to
admirable account the materials at his command.
The work of Dr. Bence Jones enables me to correct a statement
regarding Wollaston's and Faraday's respective relations to the
discovery of Magnetic Rotation. Wollaston's idea was to make the
wire carrying a current rotate round its own axis: an idea
afterwards realised by the celebrated Ampere. Faraday's discovery
was to make the wire carrying the current revolve round the pole of
a magnet and the reverse.
John Tyndall.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: trustful, childlike, reverential; which an old woman could take from a
young man without loss of dignity, and woe betide the girl--pray Heaven it
was none of her daughters!--who did not feel the worth of it, and all
that it implied, to the marrow of her bones!
She turned with severity upon Nancy. He had not chased them, she said.
He had been asked.
They must find a way out of it all. There might be some simpler way, some
less laborious way, she sighed. When she looked in the glass and saw her
hair grey, her cheek sunk, at fifty, she thought, possibly she might have
managed things better--her husband; money; his books. But for her own
part she would never for a single second regret her decision, evade
To the Lighthouse |
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 Emma by Jane Austen: smile so?--where did you hear it?--at Randalls?"
He had time only to say,
"No, not at Randalls; I have not been near Randalls," when the door
was thrown open, and Miss Bates and Miss Fairfax walked into the room.
Full of thanks, and full of news, Miss Bates knew not which to
give quickest. Mr. Knightley soon saw that he had lost his moment,
and that not another syllable of communication could rest with him.
"Oh! my dear sir, how are you this morning? My dear Miss Woodhouse--
I come quite over-powered. Such a beautiful hind-quarter of pork!
You are too bountiful! Have you heard the news? Mr. Elton is going
to be married."
Emma |
