| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: Marilla permitted the "chatter" until she found herself
becoming too interested in it, whereupon she always promptly
quenched Anne by a curt command to hold her tongue.
Anne was out in the orchard when Mrs. Rachel came,
wandering at her own sweet will through the lush, tremu-
lous grasses splashed with ruddy evening sunshine; so that
good lady had an excellent chance to talk her illness fully
over, describing every ache and pulse beat with such
evident enjoyment that Marilla thought even grippe must
bring its compensations. When details were exhausted
Mrs. Rachel introduced the real reason of her call.
Anne of Green Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: They lived through each other, this Malay he had never
seen, and this high-sterned thing of no size that seemed
to be resting after a long journey. And of all the ships
in sight, near and far, each was provided with a man,
the man without whom the finest ship is a dead thing,
a floating and purposeless log.
After his one glance at the roadstead he went on, since
there was nothing to turn back for, and the time must
be got through somehow. The avenues of big trees ran
straight over the Esplanade, cutting each other at di-
verse angles, columnar below and luxuriant above. The
End of the Tether |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: is sweet and peaceable. You are in love; of that I am sure, nor
do I see any wrong in that. But I shall consider it very wrong,
if through some childish folly you conceal from me your heart."
"Nurse, there is no need of your speaking so. But first I must
be sure and certain that under no circumstances will you speak of
it to any living soul." "My lady, surely the winds will speak of
it before I do without your leave, and I will give you my word so
to favour your desires that you may safely trust in having your
joy fulfilled through my services." "In that case, Nurse, I
shall be cured. But the emperor is giving me in marriage,
wherefore I grieve and am sorrowful; for he who has won my heart
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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: the schools I loved, only for their injury. I perceived that this
new portion of my strength had also been spent in vain; and from
amidst streets of iron, and palaces of crystal, shrank back at last
to the carving of the mountain and colour of the flower.
And still I could tell of failure, and failure repeated, as years
went on; but I have trespassed enough on your patience to show you,
in part, the causes of my discouragement. Now let me more
deliberately tell you its results. You know there is a tendency in
the minds of many men, when they are heavily disappointed in the
main purposes of their life, to feel, and perhaps in warning,
perhaps in mockery, to declare, that life itself is a vanity.
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