| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: Musgrove, take care of the others."
By this time the report of the accident had spread among the workmen
and boatmen about the Cobb, and many were collected near them,
to be useful if wanted, at any rate, to enjoy the sight of
a dead young lady, nay, two dead young ladies, for it proved twice as fine
as the first report. To some of the best-looking of these good people
Henrietta was consigned, for, though partially revived,
she was quite helpless; and in this manner, Anne walking by her side,
and Charles attending to his wife, they set forward, treading back
with feelings unutterable, the ground, which so lately, so very lately,
and so light of heart, they had passed along.
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad: kept under arrest in his cabin for nearly seven weeks.
But there was nothing sickly in his eyes or in his expression.
He was not a bit like me, really; yet, as we stood leaning
over my bed place, whispering side by side, with our dark heads
together and our backs to the door, anybody bold enough to open
it stealthily would have been treated to the uncanny sight
of a double captain busy talking in whispers with his other self.
"But all this doesn't tell me how you came to hang on to our side ladder,"
I inquired, in the hardly audible murmurs we used, after he had told
me something more of the proceedings on board the Sephora once the bad
weather was over.
The Secret Sharer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: mother and brother, on the contrary, who were really disinterested,
generous, and lofty, had been accused of greed because they had acted
with straightforward simplicity. Philippe's covetousness was fully
roused by Monsieur Hochon, who gave him all the details of his uncle's
property. In the first secret conversation which he held with the
octogenarian, they agreed that Philippe must not awaken Max's
suspicions; for the game would be lost if Flore and Max were to carry
off their victim, though no further than Bourges.
Once a week the colonel dined with Mignonnet; another day with
Carpentier; and every Thursday with Monsieur Hochon. At the end of
three weeks he received other invitations for the remaining days, so
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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 Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: work, and for what pay? And there are curious moral and religious
questions connected with these. How far is it lawful to suck a
portion of the soul out of a great many persons, in order to put the
abstracted psychical quantities together and make one very beautiful
or ideal soul? If we had to deal with mere blood instead of spirit,
(and the thing might literally be done--as it has been done with
infants before now)--so that it were possible, by taking a certain
quantity of blood from the arms of a given number of the mob, and
putting it all into one person, to make a more azure-blooded
gentleman of him, the thing would of course be managed; but
secretly, I should conceive. But now, because it is brain and soul
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