| 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: her moments of imagining.
A morning of thorough confusion was to be expected. A large party
in an hotel ensured a quick-changing, unsettled scene. One five minutes
brought a note, the next a parcel; and Anne had not been there
half an hour, when their dining-room, spacious as it was,
seemed more than half filled: a party of steady old friends
were seated around Mrs Musgrove, and Charles came back with
Captains Harville and Wentworth. The appearance of the latter
could not be more than the surprise of the moment. It was impossible
for her to have forgotten to feel that this arrival of their
common friends must be soon bringing them together again.
Persuasion |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: say they can whiles get folk cannily away to the plantations from
some of the outports, and something to boot for them that brings
a bonny wench. They're wanted beyond seas thae female cattle,
and they're no that scarce here. But I think o' doing better for
this lassie. There's a leddy, that, unless she be a' the better
bairn, is to be sent to foreign parts whether she will or no;
now, I think of sending Grace to wait on her--she's a bonny
lassie. Hobbie will hae a merry morning when he comes hame, and
misses baith bride and gear."
"Ay; and do you not pity him?" said the Recluse.
"Wad he pity me were I gaeing up the Castle hill at Jeddart? [
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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 The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: backward to my mistakes."
The next day Mathias received a bill of exchange for one hundred and
fifty thousand francs from de Marsay.
"You see," said Paul, "he does not write a word to me. He begins by
obliging me. Henri's nature is the most imperfectly perfect, the most
illegally beautiful that I know. If you knew with what superiority
that man, still young, can rise above sentiments, above self-
interests, and judge them, you would be astonished, as I am, to find
how much heart he has."
Mathias tried to battle with Paul's determination, but he found it
irrevocable, and it was justified by so many cogent reasons that the
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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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: inwardly with tender and delightful ardours. Presently the
window opened, and the fair Cuban, with a smile imperfectly
dissembled, appeared upon the sill.
'Come here,' she said, 'here, beside my window. The small
verandah gives a belt of shelter.' And she graciously handed
him a folding-chair.
As he sat down, visibly aglow with shyness and delight, a
certain bulkiness in his pocket reminded him that he was not
come empty-handed.
'I have taken the liberty,' said he, 'of bringing you a
little book. I thought of you, when I observed it on the
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