| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: by me,' was another of his observations; 'they're making something by
that fellow.' And he pointed to the Devonian, who was just then busy
to the eyes.
The more you saw of Alick, the more, it must be owned, you learned to
despise him. His natural talents were of no use either to himself or
others; for his character had degenerated like his face, and become
pulpy and pretentious. Even his power of persuasion, which was
certainly very surprising, stood in some danger of being lost or
neutralised by over-confidence. He lied in an aggressive, brazen
manner, like a pert criminal in the dock; and he was so vain of his
own cleverness that he could not refrain from boasting, ten minutes
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: and enlightened by it, it accepts it as a fact in nature, and does not
conceive it as having had youth, passions, and weaknesses, or as still
growing, yearning, suffering, and learning. If I meet a widow I may
ask her all about her marriage; but what son ever dreams of asking his
mother about her marriage, or could endure to hear of it without
violently breaking off the old sacred relationship between them, and
ceasing to be her child or anything more to her than the first man in
the street might be?
Yet though in this sense the child cannot realize its parent's
humanity, the parent can realize the child's; for the parents with
their experience of life have none of the illusions about the child
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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 Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: no doubt, were passing through his mind, for all processes of thought-
communications are far more swift, I think, in blind people, because
their blindness compels them to concentrate their attention. I had not
long to wait for proof that we were in sympathy in this way. Facino
Cane left off playing, and came up to me. "Let us go out!" he said;
his tones thrilled through me like an electric shock. I gave him my
arm, and we went.
Outside in the street he said, "Will you take me back to Venice? Will
you be my guide? Will you put faith in me? You shall be richer than
ten of the richest houses in Amsterdam or London, richer than
Rothschild; in short, you shall have the fabulous wealth of the
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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 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: intimacy with his ways-- seen anything that betrayed him to be
unprincipled or unjust--anything that spoke him of irreligious or
immoral habits; that among his own connections he was
esteemed and valued-- that even Wickham had allowed him
merit as a brother, and that she had often heard him speak so
affectionately of his sister as to prove him capable of some
amiable feeling; that had his actions been what Mr. Wickham
represented them, so gross a violation of everything right could
hardly have been concealed from the world; and that friendship
between a person capable of it, and such an amiable man as
Bingley, was incomprehensible.
Pride and Prejudice |
