| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: never passed a fellow without some joke or other. He remembered
once seeing the place where he lived with his wife. "Granny
Hill" the boys called her. Bedridden she Was; but so kind as
Joe was to her! kept the room so clean!--and the old woman, when
he was there, was laughing at some of t' lad's foolishness."
The step was far down the street; but he could see him place the
ladder, run up, and light the gas. A longing seized him to be
spoken to once more.
"Joe!" he called, out of the grating. "Good-bye, Joe!"
The old man stopped a moment, listening uncertainly; then
hurried on. The prisoner thrust his hand out of the window, and
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Enoch Arden, &c. by Alfred Tennyson: Not knowing--Enoch was so brown, so bow'd,
So broken--all the story of his house.
His baby's death, her growing poverty,
How Philip put her little ones to school,
And kept them in it, his long wooing her,
Her slow consent, and marriage, and the birth
Of Philip's child: and o'er his countenance
No shadow past, nor motion: anyone,
Regarding, well had deem'd he felt the tale
Less than the teller: only when she closed
`Enoch, poor man, was cast away and lost'
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: of an expedient. I had, the evening before, drunk plentifully of
a most delicious wine called GLIMIGRIM, (the Blefuscudians call
it FLUNEC, but ours is esteemed the better sort,) which is very
diuretic. By the luckiest chance in the world, I had not
discharged myself of any part of it. The heat I had contracted
by coming very near the flames, and by labouring to quench them,
made the wine begin to operate by urine; which I voided in such a
quantity, and applied so well to the proper places, that in three
minutes the fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that
noble pile, which had cost so many ages in erecting, preserved
from destruction.
Gulliver's Travels |
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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: according to his own favourite theory. Aloud he observed that as
long as a man had not given up correspondence he could not be
looked upon as lost. Fugitive criminals had been tracked in that
way by justice, he reminded his friend; then suddenly changed the
bearing of the subject somewhat by asking if Renouard had heard
from his people lately, and if every member of his large tribe was
well and happy.
"Yes, thanks."
The tone was curt, as if repelling a liberty. Renouard did not
like being asked about his people, for whom he had a profound and
remorseful affection. He had not seen a single human being to whom
Within the Tides |
