| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: allow it!"
"What has happened here?" asked mother. "Why has my brother been
taken ill? What's the matter?"
Looking at Tatyana's pale, frightened face and at her infuriated
husband, mother probably guessed what was the matter. She sighed
and shook her head.
"Come! give over banging on the table!" she said. "Leave off,
Fyodor! And why are you thumping, Yegor Alexyevitch? What have
you got to do with it?"
Pobyedimsky was startled and confused. Fyodor looked intently at
him, then at his wife, and began walking about the room. When
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: mirrored, had been at the bottom of his drifting so far, and I was
genuinely touched by his confidence. It was inconsistent with his
habits; but being troubled about a woman was not, for him, a habit:
that itself was an inconsistency. George Gravener could stand
straight enough before any other combination of forces. It amused
me to think that the combination he had succumbed to had an
American accent, a transcendental aunt and an insolvent father; but
all my old loyalty to him mustered to meet this unexpected hint
that I could help him. I saw that I could from the insincere tone
in which he pursued: "I've criticised her of course, I've
contended with her, and it has been great fun." Yet it clearly
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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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: loved her an' she'll never git anodder chance dis side of hell."
Jimmie thought he had a great idea of women's frailty, but he
could not understand why any of his kin should be victims.
"Damn her," he fervidly said.
Again he wondered vaguely if some of the women of his acquaintance
had brothers. Nevertheless, his mind did not for an instant
confuse himself with those brothers nor his sister with theirs.
After the mother had, with great difficulty, suppressed the
neighbors, she went among them and proclaimed her grief.
"May Gawd forgive dat girl," was her continual cry. To attentive
ears she recited the whole length and breadth of her woes.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
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 Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: thought. Polston, if he had seen his face as he paced the street
slowly home to the mill, would have remembered his mother's the
day she died. How the stern old woman met death half-way! why
should she fear? she was as strong as he. Wherein had she failed
of duty? her hands were clean: she was going to meet her just
reward.
It was different with Holmes, of course, with his self-existent
soul. It was life he accepted to-night, he thought,--a life of
growth, labour, achievement,--eternal.
"Ohne Hast, aber ohne Rast,"--favourite words with him. He liked
to study the nature of the man who spoke them; because, I think,
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
