| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: At last it was agreed to anchor, and wait till midnight. If the
ships of war came out, they were to try to run in past them, and,
desperate as the attempt might be, attempt their original plan of
landing to the westward of the town, taking it in flank, plundering
the government storehouses, which they saw close to the landing-
place, and then fighting their way back to their boats, and out of
the roadstead. Two hours would suffice if the armada and the
galleys were but once out of the way.
Amyas went forward, called the men together, and told them the
plan. It was not very cheerfully received: but what else was there
to be done!
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: up. He even turned the scales in favor of the prisoners by dwelling on
the senator's evidence. This clemency, however, did not in the least
endanger the success of the prosecution. At eleven o'clock that night,
after the jury had replied through their foreman to the usual
questions, the Court condemned Michu to death, the Messieurs de
Simeuse to twenty-four years' and the Messieurs d'Hauteserre to ten
years, penal servitude at hard labor. Gothard was acquitted.
The whole audience was eager to observe the bearing of the five guilty
men in this supreme moment of their lives. The four gentlemen looked
at Laurence, who returned them, with dry eyes, the ardent look of the
martyrs.
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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 Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: the "George Elliott" unshipped her rudder on the wreck
of the "Sunflower"----'
'Why, the "Sunflower" didn't sink until----'
'I know when she sunk; it was three years before that, on the 2nd of December;
Asa Hardy was captain of her, and his brother John was first clerk;
and it was his first trip in her, too; Tom Jones told me these things
a week afterward in New Orleans; he was first mate of the "Sunflower."
Captain Hardy stuck a nail in his foot the 6th of July of the next year,
and died of the lockjaw on the 15th. His brother died two years after
3rd of March,--erysipelas. I never saw either of the Hardys,--they were
Alleghany River men,--but people who knew them told me all these things.
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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 Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: occurred to me that this shadow of a garage must be a blind, and that
sumptuous and romantic apartments were concealed overhead, when the
proprietor himself appeared in the door of an office, wiping his hands
on a piece of waste. He was a blond, spiritless man, anaemic, and
faintly handsome. When he saw us a damp gleam of hope sprang into his
light blue eyes.
"Hello, Wilson, old man," said Tom, slapping him jovially on the
shoulder. "How's business?"
"I can't complain," answered Wilson unconvincingly. "When are you going
to sell me that car?"
"Next week; I've got my man working on it now."
The Great Gatsby |
