| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: nurse and to place the little man with his aunt, Mme Lerat, at the
Batignolles, whither she could go and see him as often as she liked.
Meanwhile the lady's maid kept hinting that her mistress ought to
have confided her necessities to the old miser.
"To be sure, I told him everything," cried Nana, "and he told me in
answer that he had too many big liabilities. He won't go beyond his
thousand francs a month. The nigger's beggared just at present; I
expect he's lost at play. As to that poor Mimi, he stands in great
need of a loan himself; a fall in stocks has cleaned him out--he
can't even bring me flowers now."
She was speaking of Daguenet. In the self-abandonment of her
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: a single loud word or the slightest noise. And just in time too,
for the tide turned even before she was properly moored.
"Davidson had something to eat, and then, coming on deck for a last
look round, noticed that the light was still burning in the house.
"This was very unusual, but since they were awake so late, Davidson
thought that he would go up to say that he was in a hurry to be off
and to ask that what rattans there were in store should be sent on
board with the first sign of dawn.
"He stepped carefully over the shaky planks, not being anxious to
get a sprained ankle, and picked his way across the waste ground to
the foot of the house ladder. The house was but a glorified hut on
Within the Tides |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: so again, if I was hangman. Some other man has got my old
opinions at this minute. That makes it worse. Somebody's longing
to work me off. I know by myself that somebody must be!'
'He'll soon have his longing,' said Hugh, resuming his walk.
'Think of that, and be quiet.'
Although one of these men displayed, in his speech and bearing, the
most reckless hardihood; and the other, in his every word and
action, testified such an extreme of abject cowardice that it was
humiliating to see him; it would be difficult to say which of them
would most have repelled and shocked an observer. Hugh's was the
dogged desperation of a savage at the stake; the hangman was
Barnaby Rudge |
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 Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum: away from the flapping, sighing Rak. They
stumbled over the stones for a way but presently
began to see dimly the path ahead of them, as
they got farther and farther away from the
dreadful spot where the wounded monster lay.
By and by they reached a little hill and could
see the last rays of the sun flooding a pretty
valley beyond, for now they had passed beyond
the cloudy breath of the Rak. Here were huddled
the sixteen officers, still frightened and panting
from their run. They had halted only because
Tik-Tok of Oz |
