| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: Morgan he was really capable of that; but the boy, growing more
serious, and to prove he hadn't meant what he said, not only
hurried him off to the Consulate - since he was to start that
evening, as he had wired to his friend - but made sure of their
affair by going with him. They splashed through the tortuous
perforations and over the humpbacked bridges, and they passed
through the Piazza, where they saw Mr. Moreen and Ulick go into a
jeweller's shop. The Consul proved accommodating - Pemberton said
it wasn't the letter, but Morgan's grand air - and on their way
back they went into Saint Mark's for a hushed ten minutes. Later
they took up and kept up the fun of it to the very end; and it
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: darkness, in the shaft which ran from the sunlight to the depths, perhaps
a tear formed; a tear fell; the waters swayed this way and that, received
it, and were at rest. Never did anybody look so sad.
But was it nothing but looks, people said? What was there behind it--her
beauty and splendour? Had he blown his brains out, they asked, had he
died the week before they were married--some other, earlier lover, of whom
rumours reached one? Or was there nothing? nothing but an incomparable
beauty which she lived behind, and could do nothing to disturb? For
easily though she might have said at some moment of intimacy when stories
of great passion, of love foiled, of ambition thwarted came her way how
she too had known or felt or been through it herself, she never spoke.
To the Lighthouse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: 'I said at last, "What is to be done to the people who say that I
am Tyr?"
'She said, "He who has done a God-like thing must bear
himself like a God. I see no way out of it. The people are now your
sheep till you die. You cannot drive them off."
'I said, "This is a heavier sheep than I can lift." She said, "In
time it will grow easy. In time perhaps you will not lay it down
for any maiden anywhere. Be wise - be very wise, my son, for
nothing is left you except the words, and the songs, and the
worship of a God."
'Oh, poor God!' said Puck. 'But those are not altogether
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: heaved a sigh as staid, reasonable people do sigh, shook his
head, and said:
"And all because of what? We have sinned greatly, we have
forgotten God . . and it seems that the time has come for all to
end. And, after all, the world can't last for ever -- it's time
to know when to take leave."
The shepherd sighed and, as though wishing to cut short an
unpleasant conversation, he walked away from the birch-tree and
began silently reckoning over the cows.
"Hey-hey-hey!" he shouted. "Hey-hey-hey! Bother you, the plague
take you! The devil has taken you into the thicket. Tu-lu-lu!"
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