| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: exchanged on every waking day of life. But what of that?
They had behind them, to my mind, the terrific suggestiveness
of words heard in dreams, of phrases spoken in nightmares.
Soul! If anybody ever struggled with a soul, I am the man.
And I wasn't arguing with a lunatic either. Believe me or not,
his intelligence was perfectly clear--concentrated, it is true,
upon himself with horrible intensity, yet clear; and therein
was my only chance--barring, of course, the killing him there
and then, which wasn't so good, on account of unavoidable noise.
But his soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked
within itself, and, by heavens! I tell you, it had gone mad.
Heart of Darkness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: accomplished, largely through his efforts, about the time he went
to Springfield to live. This change from New Salem, a village of
fifteen or twenty houses, to a "city" of two thousand
inhabitants, placed him once more in striking new relations as to
dress, manners, and society. Yet, as in the case of his removal
from his father's cabin to New Salem six years earlier, the
change was not so startling as would at first appear. In spite of
its larger population and its ambition as the new State capital,
Springfield was at that time in many ways no great improvement
upon New Salem. It had no public buildings, its streets and
sidewalks were still unpaved, and business of all kinds was
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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 Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson:
Treasure Island |
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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: reached out to him. "We have not seen the end of this yet," he
went on, speaking rapidly, and as if articulation had become
difficult to him. "Come, Evie, we must go back to the house and
look at the cabinet--now, at once."
I had risen to my feet by this time, but I shrank away at those
words. "To that room? Oh, Alan--no, I cannot."
He had hold of my hand still, and he tightened his grasp upon it.
"I shall be with you; you will not be afraid with me," he said.
"Come." His eyes were burning, his face flushed and paled in rapid
alternation, and his hand held mine like a vice of iron.
I turned with him, and we walked back to the Grange, Alan
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