| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: Count's arms on the seals; I snatched it up, and saw that it was
addressed to me. I looked steadily at the Countess with the pitiless
clear-sightedness of an examining magistrate confronting a guilty
creature. The contents were blazing in the grate; she had flung them
on the fire at the sound of our approach, imagining, from a first
hasty glance at the provisions which I had suggested for her children,
that she was destroying a will which disinherited them. A tormented
conscience and involuntary horror of the deed which she had done had
taken away all power of reflection. She had been caught in the act,
and possibly the scaffold was rising before her eyes, and she already
felt the felon's branding iron.
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: Gertrude turned her back to the opposite shore; it was disagreeable
to her to look, but she hoped Felix would say something more.
"Ah, they have wandered away into the wood," he added.
Gertrude turned round again. "She is not in love with him," she said;
it seemed her duty to say that.
"Then he is in love with her; or if he is not, he ought to be.
She is such a perfect little woman of her kind. She reminds
me of a pair of old-fashioned silver sugar-tongs; you know I
am very fond of sugar. And she is very nice with Mr. Brand;
I have noticed that; very gentle and gracious."
Gertrude reflected a moment. Then she took a great resolution.
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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 Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: Jack saw that they deceived him. So then, when he asked his way of
any man, he showed the bright sword naked; and at that the gyve on
the man's ankle rang, and answered in his stead; and the word was
still STRAIGHT ON. But the man, when his gyve spoke, spat and
struck at Jack, and threw stones at him as he went away; so that
his head was broken.
So he came to that wood, and entered in, and he was aware of a
house in a low place, where funguses grew, and the trees met, and
the steaming of the marsh arose about it like a smoke. It was a
fine house, and a very rambling; some parts of it were ancient like
the hills, and some but of yesterday, and none finished; and all
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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 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: in a sort of war of wit, a display of family ingenuity,
on one side in the mystery of an affected secret,
on the other of undefined discovery, all equally acute.
Catherine was with her friend again the next day,
endeavouring to support her spirits and while away the
many tedious hours before the delivery of the letters;
a needful exertion, for as the time of reasonable expectation
drew near, Isabella became more and more desponding,
and before the letter arrived, had worked herself
into a state of real distress. But when it did come,
where could distress be found? "I have had no difficulty
Northanger Abbey |
