| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: measure but afterwards--and the note of it already trembled. It
was, for the matter of that, one of the signs that her eyes were
having again the high flicker of their prime. He had to admit,
however, what she said. "Oh yes, there were times when we did go
far." He caught himself in the act of speaking as if it all were
over. Well, he wished it were; and the consummation depended for
him clearly more and more on his friend.
But she had now a soft smile. "Oh far--!"
It was oddly ironic. "Do you mean you're prepared to go further?"
She was frail and ancient and charming as she continued to look at
him, yet it was rather as if she had lost the thread. "Do you
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: on the first. Rhetoric is assailed on various grounds: first, as desiring
to persuade, without a knowledge of the truth; and secondly, as ignoring
the distinction between certain and probable matter. The three speeches
are then passed in review: the first of them has no definition of the
nature of love, and no order in the topics (being in these respects far
inferior to the second); while the third of them is found (though a fancy
of the hour) to be framed upon real dialectical principles. But dialectic
is not rhetoric; nothing on that subject is to be found in the endless
treatises of rhetoric, however prolific in hard names. When Plato has
sufficiently put them to the test of ridicule he touches, as with the point
of a needle, the real error, which is the confusion of preliminary
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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 Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: "but, villains, you shall be more grievously bruised by me than ever was
the sheriff by my daughter (a pretty tale truly!), if you do not forthwith
avoid my territory."
By this time the baron's men had flocked to the battlements,
with long-bows and cross-bows, slings and stones,
and Matilda with her bow and quiver at their head.
The assailants, finding the castle so well defended, deemed it
expedient to withdraw till they could return in greater force,
and rode off to Rubygill Abbey, where they made known their
errand to the father abbot, who, having satisfied himself
of their legitimacy, and conned over the allegations,
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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 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: Catherine's silent appeal to her friend, meanwhile,
was entirely thrown away, for Mrs. Allen, not being at all
in the habit of conveying any expression herself by a look,
was not aware of its being ever intended by anybody else;
and Catherine, whose desire of seeing Miss Tilney again could
at that moment bear a short delay in favour of a drive,
and who thought there could be no impropriety in her going
with Mr. Thorpe, as Isabella was going at the same time
with James, was therefore obliged to speak plainer.
"Well, ma'am, what do you say to it? Can you spare me
for an hour or two? Shall I go?"
Northanger Abbey |
