| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: "You know as well as I do that these tiffin-rooms where we are
sitting now have been in existence for many years. Well, next day
about twelve o'clock, Davidson dropped in here to get something to
eat.
"And here comes the only moment in this story where accident - mere
accident - plays a part. If Davidson had gone home that day for
tiffin, there would be now, after twelve years or more, nothing
changed in his kindly, placid smile.
"But he came in here; and perhaps it was sitting at this very table
that he remarked to a friend of mine that his next trip was to be a
dollar-collecting trip. He added, laughing, that his wife was
Within the Tides |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass: them at dinner time, after partaking of their coarse repast, are
variously spent. Some lie down on the "turning row," and go to
sleep; others draw together, and talk; and others are at work
with needle and thread, mending their tattered garments.
Sometimes you may hear a wild, hoarse laugh arise from a circle,
and often a song. Soon, however, the overseer comes dashing
through the field. _"Tumble up! Tumble up_, and to _work,
work,"_ is the cry; and, now, from twelve o'clock (mid-day) till
dark, the human cattle are in motion, wielding their clumsy hoes;
hurried on by no hope of reward, no sense of gratitude, no love
of children, no prospect of bettering their condition; nothing,
My Bondage and My Freedom |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: there's a single branch, a single twig of a miserable hazel, they
seize the whole bundle, and they say they'll arrest us. Ha, the
villains! there's no deceiving them; if they suspect you, you've got
to undo the bundle. Dogs! all three are not worth a farthing! Yes,
kill 'em, and it won't ruin France, I tell you."
"Little Vatel is not so bad," said Madame Tonsard.
"He!" said Laroche, "he does his business, like the others; when
there's a joke going he'll joke with you, but you are none the better
with him for that. He's worse than the rest,--heartless to poor folks,
like Michaud himself."
"Michaud has got a pretty wife, though," said Nicolas Tonsard.
|
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 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: red lips, the mobile nostrils, and the proud carriage of the head
gave the impression of a being half-savage, untamed, perhaps
cruel, and corrected the liquid softness of the almost feminine
eye, that general characteristic of the race. Now, the first
surprise over, Nina saw those eyes fixed upon her with such an
uncontrolled expression of admiration and desire that she felt a
hitherto unknown feeling of shyness, mixed with alarm and some
delight, enter and penetrate her whole being.
Confused by those unusual sensations she stopped in the doorway
and instinctively drew the lower part of the curtain across her
face, leaving only half a rounded cheek, a stray tress, and one
Almayer's Folly |
