| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: Lady Russell said not another word, willing to leave the matter
to its own operation; and believing that, could Mr Elliot at that moment
with propriety have spoken for himself!--she believed, in short,
what Anne did not believe. The same image of Mr Elliot speaking
for himself brought Anne to composure again. The charm of Kellynch
and of "Lady Elliot" all faded away. She never could accept him.
And it was not only that her feelings were still adverse to any man
save one; her judgement, on a serious consideration of the possibilities
of such a case was against Mr Elliot.
Though they had now been acquainted a month, she could not be satisfied
that she really knew his character. That he was a sensible man,
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: were printed books doomed to suffer in the same penal fires,
that up to then had been fed on MSS. only.
At Cremona, in 1569, 12,000 books printed in Hebrew were publicly
burnt as heretical, simply on account of their language;
and Cardinal Ximenes, at the capture of Granada, treated 5,000
copies of the Koran in the same way.
At the time of the Reformation in England a great destruction
of books took place. The antiquarian Bale, writing in 1587,
thus speaks of the shameful fate of the Monastic libraries:--
"A greate nombre of them whyche purchased those superstycyouse mansyons
(_Monasteries_) reserved of those librarye bookes some to serve
|
