| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: She wondered.
And then, before long, it was Sara Lee's turn to, stand the gaff. There
was another letter, a curiously incoherent one from Harvey's sister. She
referred to something that the society had done, and hoped that Sara Lee
would take it in kindness, as it was meant. Harvey was well and much
happier. She was to try to understand Harvey's part. He had been
almost desperate. Evidently the letter had preceded one that should have
arrived at the same time. Sara Lee was sadly puzzled. She went to Henri
with it, but he could make nothing out of it. There was nothing to do
but to wait.
The next night Henri was to go through the lines again. Since his
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adam Bede by George Eliot: is a widow, an' I took you wi' as good as no character, an' the
times an' times I've told you...."
Molly had not seen the lightning, and the thunder shook her nerves
the more for the want of that preparation. With a vague alarmed
sense that she must somehow comport herself differently, she
hastened her step a little towards the far deal table, where she
might set down her cans--caught her foot in her apron, which had
become untied, and fell with a crash and a splash into a pool of
beer; whereupon a tittering explosion from Marty and Tommy, and a
serious "Ello!" from Mr. Poyser, who saw his draught of ale
unpleasantly deferred.
Adam Bede |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: clay; and as the gentles grow big, they will fall into the barrel and scour
themselves, and be always ready for use whensoever you incline to fish;
and these gentles may be thus created till after Michaelmas. But if you
desire to keep gentles to fish with all the year, then get a dead cat, or a
kite, and let it be flyblown; and when the gentles begin to be alive and
to stir, then bury it and them in soft moist earth, but as free from frost
as you can; and these you may dig up at any time when you intend to
use them: these will last till March, and about that time turn to be flies.
But if you be nice to foul your fingers, which good anglers seldom are,
then take this bait: get a handful of well-made malt, and put it into a
dish of water; and then was]l and rub it betwixt your hands till you
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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 Apology by Xenophon: "Still I would not have you accept this even on the faith of the god
too rashly; rather I would have you investigate, point by point, what
the god has said. I ask you, is there any one[28] else, you know of,
less enslaved than myself to the appetites[29] of the body? Can you
name another man of more independent spirit than myself, seeing that I
accept from no one either gifts or pay? Whom have you any right to
believe to be more just[30] than one so suited with what he has, that
the things of others excite no craving in him?[31] Whom would one
reasonably deem wise, rather than such a one as myself, who, from the
moment I began to understand things spoken,[32] have never omitted to
inquire into and learn every good thing in my power? And that I
The Apology |
