| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: of her wisdom and dignity. She felt a dozen impressions stirring
within her, and presently the one that was uppermost found words.
"They want to dissolve her marriage?" she asked.
"So it appears."
"And against her will?"
"Against her right."
"She must be very unhappy!" said Gertrude.
Her visitor looked at her, smiling; he raised his hand to the back
of his head and held it there a moment. "So she says," he answered.
"That 's her story. She told me to tell it you."
"Tell me more," said Gertrude.
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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 Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: anyone, never extended his acquaintance beyond a silent bow, and
lived as humbly as a hermit. The fact was, he was a learned man,
and in those days learned men were not like other people. They
spent their days and nights in contemplation, in reading and in
healing disease, looked upon everything else as trivial, and had
no time to waste a word. The inhabitants of the town understood
this, and tried not to worry him with their visits and empty
chatter. They were very glad that God had sent them at last a
man who could heal diseases, and were proud that such a
remarkable man was living in their town. 'He knows everything,'
they said about him.
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: this notwithstanding, they are seen as the party of Order to insult the
republic and express their antipathy for it, it happened not out of
royalist traditions only: Instinct taught them that while, indeed, the
republic completes their authority, it at the same time undermined their
social foundation, in that, without intermediary, without the mask of
the crown, without being able to turn aside the national interest by
means of its subordinate struggles among its own conflicting elements
and with the crown, the republic is compelled to stand up sharp against
the subjugated classes, and wrestle with them. It was a sense of
weakness that caused them to recoil before the unqualified demands of
their own class rule, and to retreat to the less complete, less
|
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 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: They reached Maggie's home at a late hour and stood for a
moment in front of the gruesome doorway.
"Say, Mag," said Pete, "give us a kiss for takin' yeh teh deh
show, will yer?"
Maggie laughed, as if startled, and drew away from him.
"Naw, Pete," she said, "dat wasn't in it."
"Ah, what deh hell?" urged Pete.
The girl retreated nervously.
"Ah, what deh hell?" repeated he.
Maggie darted into the hall, and up the stairs. She turned
and smiled at him, then disappeared.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
