| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: she was once a woman whose intellect was to mine like a
star to a benzoline lamp: who saw all MY superstitions
as cobwebs that she could brush away with a word.
Then bitter affliction came to us, and her intellect broke,
and she veered round to darkness. Strange difference of sex,
that time and circumstance, which enlarge the views
of most men, narrow the views of women almost invariably.
And now the ultimate horror has come--her giving herself
like this to what she loathes, in her enslavement to forms!
She, so sensitive, so shrinking, that the very wind seemed to blow
on her with a touch of deference.... As for Sue and me when we
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: them off with our great shot as long as we could, and then to use
our small arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither of
these would do any longer, we would retire to our close quarters,
for perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulkheads, or
get in upon us.
The gunner had in the meantime orders to bring two guns, to bear
fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them
with musket-bullets, and small pieces of old iron, and what came
next to hand. Thus we made ready for fight; but all this while we
kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at a
distance, being five large longboats, following us with all the
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Touchstone by Edith Wharton: "Do you imply I haven't the right to?"
"I imply nothing. I will tell you whatever you wish to know. I
went for a walk with Mr. Flamel because he asked me to."
"I didn't suppose you went uninvited. But there are certain
things a sensible woman doesn't do. She doesn't slink about in
out-of-the-way streets with men. Why couldn't you have seen him
here?"
She hesitated. "Because he wanted to see me alone."
"Did he, indeed? And may I ask if you gratify all his wishes with
equal alacrity?"
"I don't know that he has any others where I am concerned." She
|
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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: An almost superstitious regard, arising perhaps from the customs
of the Indians, whose war was with the dead as well as the
living, was paid by the frontier inhabitants to the rites of
sepulture; and there are many instances of the sacrifice of life
in the attempt to bury those who had fallen by the "sword of the
wilderness." Reuben, therefore, felt the full importance of the
promise which he most solemnly made to return and perform Roger
Malvin's obsequies. It was remarkable that the latter, speaking
his whole heart in his parting words, no longer endeavored to
persuade the youth that even the speediest succor might avail to
the preservation of his life. Reuben was internally convinced
Mosses From An Old Manse |
