| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: parents and children: the son is eager to enjoy the world before
the father is willing to forsake it, and there is hardly room at
once for two generations. The daughter begins to bloom before the
mother can be content to fade, and neither can forbear to wish for
the absence of the other.
"Surely all these evils may be avoided by that deliberation and
delay which prudence prescribes to irrevocable choice. In the
variety and jollity of youthful pleasures, life may be well enough
supported without the help of a partner. Longer time will increase
experience, and wider views will allow better opportunities of
inquiry and selection; one advantage at least will be certain, 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 Persuasion by Jane Austen: for Sir Walter. She has abilities, however, as well as affections;
and it is now a doubtful point whether his cunning, or hers,
may finally carry the day; whether, after preventing her from being
the wife of Sir Walter, he may not be wheedled and caressed at last
into making her the wife of Sir William.
It cannot be doubted that Sir Walter and Elizabeth were shocked
and mortified by the loss of their companion, and the discovery of
their deception in her. They had their great cousins, to be sure,
to resort to for comfort; but they must long feel that to flatter
and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn,
is but a state of half enjoyment.
Persuasion |
