| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin: decorated a very fierce little face, of the reddest gold imaginable,
right in the front of the mug, with a pair of eyes in it which
seemed to command its whole circumference. It was impossible to
drink out of the mug without being subjected to an intense gaze out
of the side of these eyes, and Schwartz positively averred that
once, after emptying it, full of Rhenish, seventeen times, he had
seen them wink! When it came to the mug's turn to be made into
spoons, it half broke poor little Gluck's heart; but the brothers
only laughed at him, tossed the mug into the melting pot, and
staggered out to the alehouse, leaving him, as usual, to pour the
gold into bars when it was all ready.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: HASTINGS. My dear Marlow! But I'll suppress the emotion. Were I a
wretch, meanly seeking to carry off a fortune, you should be the last
man in the world I would apply to for assistance. But Miss Neville's
person is all I ask, and that is mine, both from her deceased father's
consent, and her own inclination.
MARLOW. Happy man! You have talents and art to captivate any woman.
I'm doom'd to adore the sex, and yet to converse with the only part of
it I despise. This stammer in my address, and this awkward
prepossessing visage of mine, can never permit me to soar above the
reach of a milliner's 'prentice, or one of the duchesses of Drury-lane.
Pshaw! this fellow here to interrupt us.
She Stoops to Conquer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: But I have not done. May I cut off the head of dead Miss Lucy?"
"Heavens and earth, no!" cried Arthur in a storm of passion.
"Not for the wide world will I consent to any mutilation
of her dead body. Dr. Van Helsing, you try me too far.
What have I done to you that you should torture me so?
What did that poor, sweet girl do that you should want to cast such
dishonor on her grave? Are you mad, that you speak of such things,
or am I mad to listen to them? Don't dare think more of such
a desecration. I shall not give my consent to anything you do.
I have a duty to do in protecting her grave from outrage,
and by God, I shall do it!"
Dracula |
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 One Basket by Edna Ferber: "My! Look how red the sky is!" delivered as unemotionally as a
weather bulletin.
Tessie Golden sat on the top step of the back porch now, a slim,
inert heap in a cotton house coat and scuffed slippers. Her head
was propped wearily against the porch post. Her hands were limp
in her lap. Her face was turned toward the west, where shone
that mingling of orange and rose known as salmon pink. But no
answering radiance in the girl's face met the glow in the
Wisconsin sky.
Saturday night, after supper in Chippewa, Wisconsin, Tessie
Golden of the presunset era would have been calling from her
One Basket |
