| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: "Shall I lend you a lantern to look for the young
person's glove, Mr. Venn?"
"O no; it is not necessary, Mrs. Wildeve, thank you.
The moon will rise in a few minutes."
Thomasin went back to the porch. "Is he coming in?"
said Clym, who had been waiting where she had left him.
"He would rather not tonight," she said, and then passed
by him into the house; whereupon Clym too retired to his
own rooms.
When Clym was gone Thomasin crept upstairs in the dark, and,
just listening by the cot, to assure herself that the child
Return of the Native |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: If he never said a cutting word about Mr. Casaubon again and left
off receiving favors from him, it would clearly be permissible
to hate him the more. The poet must know how to hate, says Goethe;
and Will was at least ready with that accomplishment. He said that he
must go now without waiting for Mr. Casaubon, whom he would come
to take leave of at the last moment. Dorothea gave him her hand,
and they exchanged a simple "Good-by."
But going out of the porte cochere he met Mr. Casaubon,
and that gentleman, expressing the best wishes for his cousin,
politely waived the pleasure of any further leave-taking on the morrow,
which would be sufficiently crowded with the preparations for departure.
Middlemarch |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: pleasure in hearing his family reviled: with other inquiries of
that nature; at which disgrace and provocation, the small boy, who
had been all this time gradually lashed into rebellion by the sight
of unattainable pastry, walked off indignant, leaving his aunt and
the box to follow at their leisure. Somehow or other, by dint of
pushing and pulling, they did attain the street at last; where Miss
Miggs, all blowzed with the exertion of getting there, and with her
sobs and tears, sat down upon her property to rest and grieve,
until she could ensnare some other youth to help her home.
'It's a thing to laugh at, Martha, not to care for,' whispered the
locksmith, as he followed his wife to the window, and good-
Barnaby Rudge |
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 Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn: and then everybody cried out to you, 'Raincoat Insect!' (Mino-mushi.) [14]
And during that period of your life, your sins were grievous. Among the
tender green leaves of beautiful cherry-trees you and your fellows
assembled, and there made ugliness extraordinary; and the expectant eyes of
the people, who came from far away to admire the beauty of those
cherry-trees, were hurt by the sight of you. And of things even more
hateful than this you were guilty. You knew that poor, poor men and women
had been cultivating daikon (2) in their fields,-- toiling under the hot
sun till their hearts were filled with bitterness by reason of having to
care for that daikon; and you persuaded your companions to go with you, and
to gather upon the leaves of that daikon, and on the leaves of other
Kwaidan |
