| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: "It's NOT cold."
"Thee strip thysen stark nak'd to wesh thy flesh i' that scullery,"
said the miner, as he rubbed his hair; "nowt b'r a ice-'ouse!"
"And I shouldn't make that fuss," replied his wife.
"No, tha'd drop down stiff, as dead as a door-knob, wi'
thy nesh sides."
"Why is a door-knob deader than anything else?" asked Paul, curious.
"Eh, I dunno; that's what they say," replied his father.
"But there's that much draught i' yon scullery, as it blows through
your ribs like through a five-barred gate."
"It would have some difficulty in blowing through yours,"
Sons and Lovers |
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 Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: In which of these two women ought I to believe? I felt, as it were by
a thousand pin-pricks, the infinite differences between Henriette and
Arabella. When Madame de Mortsauf left me for a while she seemed to
leave to the air the duty of reminding me of her; the folds of her
gown as she went away spoke to the eye, as their undulating sound to
the ear when she returned; infinite tenderness was in the way she
lowered her eyelids and looked on the ground; her voice, that musical
voice, was a continual caress; her words expressed a constant thought;
she was always like unto herself; she did not halve her soul to suit
two atmospheres, one ardent, the other icy. In short, Madame de
Mortsauf reserved her mind and the flower of her thought to express
The Lily of the Valley |
