| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: hands on me; and, not daring to attack her master, she turned her
vocal artillery against the younger scoundrel.
'Well, Mr. Earnshaw,' she cried, 'I wonder what you'll have agait
next? Are we going to murder folk on our very door-stones? I see
this house will never do for me - look at t' poor lad, he's fair
choking! Wisht, wisht; you mun'n't go on so. Come in, and I'll
cure that: there now, hold ye still.'
With these words she suddenly splashed a pint of icy water down my
neck, and pulled me into the kitchen. Mr. Heathcliff followed, his
accidental merriment expiring quickly in his habitual moroseness.
I was sick exceedingly, and dizzy, and faint; and thus compelled
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: "Now that's what we call the telegraph trial," said the pupil. "If you
can stand like that, without lowering or changing the position of your
arms for a quarter of an hour, then you'll have proved yourself a
plucky one."
"Courage, little one, courage!" cried all the rest. "You must suffer
if you want to be an artist."
Joseph, with the good faith of his thirteen years, stood motionless
for five minutes, all the pupils gazing solemnly at him.
"There! you are moving," cried one.
"Steady, steady, confound you!" cried another.
"The Emperor Napoleon stood a whole month as you see him there," said
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: was like the stone of Sisyphus, and which came every Monday, crashing
down on to the feather of his pen, Etienne worked for three or four
literary magazines. Still, do not be alarmed; he put no artistic
conscientiousness into his work. This man of Sancerre had a facility,
a carelessness, if you call it so, which ranked him with those writers
who are mere scriveners, literary hacks. In Paris, in our day, hack-
work cuts a man off from every pretension to a literary position. When
he can do no more, or no longer cares for advancement, the man who can
write becomes a journalist and a hack.
The life he leads is not unpleasing. Blue-stockings, beginners in
every walk of life, actresses at the outset or the close of a career,
The Muse of the Department |
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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: account of the young man. I must read his stuff again. It is the
rather to his credit, as our views are opposite. The east and west
are not more opposite. Can I have converted him? But no; the
incident belongs to Fairyland.'
'You are not then,' asked the Prince, 'an authoritarian?'
'I? God bless me, no!' said Gotthold. 'I am a red, dear child.'
'That brings me then to my next point, and by a natural transition.
If I am so clearly unfitted for my post,' the Prince asked; 'if my
friends admit it, if my subjects clamour for my downfall, if
revolution is preparing at this hour, must I not go forth to meet
the inevitable? should I not save these horrors and be done with
|
