| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: of certain humours is apt to idealise the removed object
with others -- notably those whose affection, placid and
regular as it may be flows deep and long. Oak belonged
to the even-tempered order of humanity, and felt the
secret fusion of himself in Bathsheba to be burning with
a finer flame now that she was gone -- that was all.
His incipient friendship with her aunt-had been
nipped by the failure of his suit, and all that Oak learnt
of Bathsheba's movements was done indirectly. It ap-
peared that she had gone to a place called Weatherbury,
more than twenty miles off, but in what capacity --
Far From the Madding Crowd |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: everybody else all the world over, in the sacred name and for the sacred
sake of the Kaiser. Thus has his breed, since we occupied Coblenz, run to
the French soldiers with lies about us and then run to us with lies about
the French soldiers, overlooking in its providential stupidity the fact
that we and the French would inevitably compare notes. Thus too is his
breed, at the moment I write these words, infesting and poisoning the
earth with a propaganda that remains as coherent and as systematically
directed as ever it was before the papers began to assure us that there
was nothing left of the Hohenzollern government.
Chapter IV: "My Army of Spies"
"You will desire to know," said the Kaiser to his council at Potsdam in
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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 The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: the door, which, as he came nearer, detached itself as if to meet him.
Happily, it was only Dutocq. He came for his notes. Cerizet returned
them in some ill-humor, complaining of the distrust implied in a visit
at such an hour. Dutocq paid no attention to this sensitiveness, and
the next morning, very early, he presented himself at la Peyrade's.
La Peyrade paid, as he had promised, on the nail, and to a few
sentinel remarks uttered by Dutocq as soon as the money was in his
pocket, he answered with marked coldness. His whole external
appearance and behavior was that of a slave who has burst his chain
and has promised himself not to make a gospel use of his liberty.
As he conducted his visitor to the door, the latter came face to face
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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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: proper place was surely the natural surroundings that are part of
you. You have been unduly influenced, it is only too apparent, by
a class of literature which, with all due respect to
distinguished authoress that shall be nameless, I must call the
New Woman Literature. In that deleterious ingredient of our book
boxes--"
"I don't altogether agree with you there," said Miss Mergle,
throwing her head back and regarding him firmly through her
spectacles, and Mr. Widgery coughed.
"What HAS all this to do with me?" asked Jessie, availing herself
of the interruption.
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