| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: bewildering from out the west, made Wilbur look up quickly. The
gray sky seemed scudding along close overhead. The bay, the
narrow channel of the Golden Gate, the outside ocean, were all
whitening with crests of waves. At his feet the huge green
ground-swells thundered to the attack of the fort's granite
foundations. Through the Gate, the bay seemed rushing out to the
Pacific. A bewildered gull shot by, tacking and slanting against
the gusts that would drive it out to sea. Evidently the storm was
not far off. Wilbur rose to his feet, and saw the "Bertha
Millner," close in, unbridled and free as a runaway horse, headed
directly for the open sea, and rushing on with all the impetus of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: ideal preferment by the ladder of ropes which Caleb had presented
to their imagination. Nay, the cunning butler regained in that
moment not only all the influence he possessed formerly over the
villagers, when the baronial family which he served were at the
proudest, but acquired even an accession of importance. The
writer--the very attorney himself, such is the thirst of
preferment--felt the force of the attraction, and taking an
opportunity to draw Caleb into a corner, spoke, with affectionate
regret, of the declining health of the sheriff-clerk of the
county.
"An excellent man--a most valuable man, Mr. Caleb; but fat sall
The Bride of Lammermoor |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Theaetetus by Plato: mysterious principle working behind them. But as has been the case with
other great philosophers, and with Plato and Aristotle themselves, what was
really permanent and original could not be understood by the next
generation, while a perverted logic carried out his chance expressions with
an illogical consistency. His simple and noble thoughts, like those of the
great Eleatic, soon degenerated into a mere strife of words. And when thus
reduced to mere words, they seem to have exercised a far wider influence in
the cities of Ionia (where the people 'were mad about them') than in the
life-time of Heracleitus--a phenomenon which, though at first sight
singular, is not without a parallel in the history of philosophy and
theology.
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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 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: "I shall see you at Horsham, then?"
"No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek
it."
"Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news
as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every
particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside
the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered
against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come
to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet
of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them
once more.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes |
