| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy: The household to which Vasili Andreevich had come was one of
the richest in the village. The family had five allotments,
besides renting other land. They had six horses, three cows,
two calves, and some twenty sheep. There were twenty-two
members belonging to the homestead: four married sons, six
grandchildren (one of whom, Petrushka, was married), two
great-grandchildren, three orphans, and four daughters-in-law
with their babies. It was one of the few homesteads that
remained still undivided, but even here the dull internal work
of disintegration which would inevitably lead to separation had
already begun, starting as usual among the women. Two sons
Master and Man |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: afterwards, as the summer day grew hot, they swam in the nude pond.
She joined them in the water, splashing about in a costume of some
elaboration and being very careful not to wet her hair. Then she
came and sat with them on the seat under the big cedar and talked
with them in a wrap that was pretty rather than prudish and entirely
unmotherly. And she began a fresh attack upon him by asking him if
he wasn't a Socialist and whether he didn't want to pull down
Chexington and grow potatoes all over the park.
This struck Prothero as an inadequate statement of the Socialist
project and he made an unsuccessful attempt to get it amended.
The engagement thus opened was renewed with great energy at lunch.
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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 Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: we are so used to minutes, hours, weeks, and months--and of clocks (I wish
there was not a clock in the kingdom) to measure out their several portions
to us, and to those who belong to us--that 'twill be well, if in time to
come, the succession of our ideas be of any use or service to us at all.
Now, whether we observe it or no, continued my father, in every sound man's
head, there is a regular succession of ideas of one sort or other, which
follow each other in train just like--A train of artillery? said my uncle
Toby--A train of a fiddle-stick!--quoth my father--which follow and succeed
one another in our minds at certain distances, just like the images in the
inside of a lanthorn turned round by the heat of a candle.--I declare,
quoth my uncle Toby, mine are more like a smoke-jack,--Then, brother Toby,
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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 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: the strawberries are ripe." Monte Cristo had seen enough.
Every man has a devouring passion in his heart, as every
fruit has its worm; that of the telegraph man was
horticulture. He began gathering the grape-leaves which
screened the sun from the grapes, and won the heart of the
gardener. "Did you come here, sir, to see the telegraph?" he
said.
"Yes, if it isn't contrary to the rules."
"Oh, no," said the gardener; "not in the least, since there
is no danger that anyone can possibly understand what we are
saying."
The Count of Monte Cristo |
