| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: their legs above their heads. Then they vanished amidst applause,
and a woman in a yellow robe, who pretended to be tipsy, sang a
horrible and vulgar song full of topical allusions, which was
received with screams of delight by the enormous audience.
"Here the hearers are very many, but those to whom they listen
do not talk well. Let us go," said Oro, and we went.
At a recruiting station we paused a moment to consider posters
supposed to be attractive, the very sight of which sent a thrill
of shame through me. I remember that the inscription under one of
them was: "What will your best girl say?"
"Is that how you gather your soldiers? Later it will be
When the World Shook |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: form, and the shape of her face gazing gravely, indeed almost sternly,
into the sky. She had come out into the winter's night, which was mild
enough, not so much to look with scientific eyes upon the stars, as to
shake herself free from certain purely terrestrial discontents. Much
as a literary person in like circumstances would begin,
absent-mindedly, pulling out volume after volume, so she stepped into
the garden in order to have the stars at hand, even though she did not
look at them. Not to be happy, when she was supposed to be happier
than she would ever be again--that, as far as she could see, was the
origin of a discontent which had begun almost as soon as she arrived,
two days before, and seemed now so intolerable that she had left the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: Silently the dark wharf began to slip, to slide, to edge away from them.
Now there was a rush of water between. Fenella strained to see with all
her might. "Was that father turning round?"--or waving?--or standing
alone?--or walking off by himself? The strip of water grew broader,
darker. Now the Picton boat began to swing round steady, pointing out to
sea. It was no good looking any longer. There was nothing to be seen but
a few lights, the face of the town clock hanging in the air, and more
lights, little patches of them, on the dark hills.
The freshening wind tugged at Fenella's skirts; she went back to her
grandma. To her relief grandma seemed no longer sad. She had put the two
sausages of luggage one on top of the other, and she was sitting on them,
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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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: man's mouth with his hand exclaimed still more loudly:
"It is the old man who reared him! he calls him 'my child!' it will
make him mad! enough! enough!" And hustling away the three priests and
their victim he went out with them and with a great kick shut the door
behind him.
Hamilcar strained his ears for some minutes in constant fear of seeing
them return. He then thought of getting rid of the slave in order to
be quite sure that he would see nothing; but the peril had not wholly
disappeared, and, if the gods were provoked at the man's death, it
might be turned against his son. Then, changing his intention, he sent
him by Taanach the best from his kitchens--a quarter of a goat, beans,
Salammbo |
