| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: And called her song 'The Song of Love and Death,'
And sang it: sweetly could she make and sing.
'Sweet is true love though given in vain, in vain;
And sweet is death who puts an end to pain:
I know not which is sweeter, no, not I.
'Love, art thou sweet? then bitter death must be:
Love, thou art bitter; sweet is death to me.
O Love, if death be sweeter, let me die.
'Sweet love, that seems not made to fade away,
Sweet death, that seems to make us loveless clay,
I know not which is sweeter, no, not I.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: and it doesn't begin to be so pleasant, but it can be
slept off. Take my word for it, he'll be a different man
by noon."
When noon came, however, Brother Soulsby was on his way
to summon one of the village doctors. Toward nightfall,
he went out again to telegraph for Alice.
CHAPTER XXXII
Spring fell early upon the pleasant southern slopes of
the Susquehanna country. The snow went off as by magic.
The trees budded and leaved before their time. The birds
came and set up their chorus in the elms, while winter
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: returned to her own seat: as she resumed it, I heard her sigh low.
She was pensive a few minutes, then rousing herself, she said
cheerfully -
"But you two are my visitors to-night; I must treat you as such."
She rang her bell.
"Barbara," she said to the servant who answered it, "I have not yet
had tea; bring the tray and place cups for these two young ladies."
And a tray was soon brought. How pretty, to my eyes, did the china
cups and bright teapot look, placed on the little round table near
the fire! How fragrant was the steam of the beverage, and the scent
of the toast! of which, however, I, to my dismay (for I was
Jane Eyre |
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 Rescue by Joseph Conrad: dawn, confronted in perfect silence that mysterious Belarab, who
himself was for a moment too astounded for speech at the sight of
a white face.
The sun had not yet cleared the forests of the interior, but a
sky already full of light arched over a dark oval lagoon, over
wide fields as yet full of shadows, that seemed slowly changing
into the whiteness of the morning mist. There were huts, fences,
palisades, big houses that, erected on lofty piles, were seen
above the tops of clustered fruit trees, as if suspended in the
air.
Such was the aspect of Belarab's settlement when Lingard set his
The Rescue |
