| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: Falmouth, at odd moments of the day, to the noisy accompaniment
of calkers' mallets driving oakum into the deck-seams of a ship
in dry-dock. We had run in, in a sinking condition and with the
crew refusing duty after a month of weary battling with the gales
of the North Atlantic. Books are an integral part of one's life,
and my Shakespearian associations are with that first year of our
bereavement, the last I spent with my father in exile (he sent me
away to Poland to my mother's brother directly he could brace
himself up for the separation), and with the year of hard gales,
the year in which I came nearest to death at sea, first by water
and then by fire.
A Personal Record |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: deep into the feathers--Ah me--''
But Bessie Bell said nothing, nor remembered anything. For she did
not know that the lady was talking of something green, and blue, and
soft, and brown.
And it was Sister Justina, and not Sister Helen Vincula, who had
told her to be ashamed when she had cried: Pretty! Pretty! Pretty!
as the something green, and blue, and soft, and brown was waved to
and fro in front of her until she seized it and buried her little
face in it for the joy--of remembering--
So Sister Helen Vincula did not know, and Bessie Bell did not
remember, while the lady talked.
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