| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Poems by T. S. Eliot: Talking of Michelangelo.
The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.
And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: They were afraid Lord Lambeth and Mr. Beaumont were not very
comfortable at their hotel; that it was not, as one of them said,
"so private as those dear little English inns of yours."
This last gentleman went on to say that unfortunately,
as yet, perhaps, privacy was not quite so easily obtained
in America as might be desired; still, he continued,
you could generally get it by paying for it; in fact,
you could get everything in America nowadays by paying for it.
American life was certainly growing a great deal more private;
it was growing very much like England. Everything at Newport,
for instance, was thoroughly private; Lord Lambeth would
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: over at last, however. The gentlemen did approach, and when
Mr. Wickham walked into the room, Elizabeth felt that she had
neither been seeing him before, nor thinking of him since, with
the smallest degree of unreasonable admiration. The officers of
the ----shire were in general a very creditable, gentlemanlike set,
and the best of them were of the present party; but Mr.
Wickham was as far beyond them all in person, countenance, air,
and walk, as THEY were superior to the broad-faced, stuffy
uncle Phillips, breathing port wine, who followed them into the
room.
Mr. Wickham was the happy man towards whom almost every
Pride and Prejudice |
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 Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: and take care of the house as usual, until his attorney could settle
up his affairs and sell the property. For Thorne said that neither
he nor his wife would ever want to set foot in the house again. He
spoke calmly, he thought of everything - he thought even of the
possibility that he might have to pay the death penalty for his deed.
For who could tell how the authorities would judge this murder?
It had indeed been a murder by merest chance only. Thorne told his
old nurse all about it. When she had given him the signal he had
hurried down into the garden, and walking quietly along the path,
he had found his wife at the garden gate in conversation with a man
who was a stranger to him. That part of their talk which he
|
