| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: large eyes--'looking more like a fish than anything else,'
Alice thought.
`Of course you agree to have a battle?' Tweedledum said in a
calmer tone.
`I suppose so,' the other sulkily replied, as he crawled out of
the umbrella: `only SHE must help us to dress up, you know.'
So the two brothers went off hand-in-hand into the wood, and
returned in a minute with their arms full of things--such as
bolsters, blankets, hearth-rugs, table-cloths, dish-covers and
coal-scuttles. `I hope you're a good hand at pinning and tying
strings?' Tweedledum remarked. `Every one of these things has
Through the Looking-Glass |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: would be able to stop me, get the girl, and make for his mountain
haunts. If Mercedes is really watched--if her identity is known,
which I am sure is the case--we couldn't get far from this house
before I'd be knifed and she seized."
"Good Heavens! Thorne, can that sort of thing happen less than a
stone's throw from the United States line?" asked Gale, incredulously.
"It can happen, and don't you forget it. You don't seem to realize
the power these guerrilla leaders, these rebel captains, and
particularly these bandits, exercise over the mass of Mexicans.
A bandit is a man of honor in Mexico. He is feared, envied, loved.
In the hearts of the people he stands next to the national idol--the
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: reasons for such conduct. She knew what importance the Earl
attached to the concealment of their marriage, and could not but
own, that by taking any step to make it public without his
permission, the Countess would incur, in a high degree, the
indignation of her husband. If she retired to her father's house
without an explicit avowal of her rank, her situation was likely
greatly to prejudice her character; and if she made such an
avowal, it might occasion an irreconcilable breach with her
husband. At Kenilworth, again, she might plead her cause with
her husband himself, whom Janet, though distrusting him more than
the Countess did, believed incapable of being accessory to the
Kenilworth |
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 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: face to face.
"There!" he said at last. "Are you all there? He is a dangerous
man."
He dragged at the cover with hasty violence, and the body rolled
stiffly off the planks and fell at his feet in rigid
helplessness.
"Cold, perfectly cold," said Almayer, looking round with a
mirthless smile. "Sorry can do no better. And you can't hang
him, either. As you observe, gentlemen," he added gravely,
"there is no head, and hardly any neck."
The last ray of light was snatched away from the tree-tops, the
Almayer's Folly |
