| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: high above his head, swore, according to the picturesque
phraseology of the antique school, that when Chanticleer had
sounded twice his merry horn, deeds of blood would be wrought, and
Murder walk abroad with silent feet.
Hardly had he finished this awful oath when, from the red-tiled
roof of a distant homestead, a cock crew. He laughed a long, low,
bitter laugh, and waited. Hour after hour he waited, but the cock,
for some strange reason, did not crow again. Finally, at half-past
seven, the arrival of the housemaids made him give up his fearful
vigil, and he stalked back to his room, thinking of his vain hope
and baffled purpose. There he consulted several books of ancient
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: this. It was a wonderful act of faith achieved without an
afterthought. Surely in the sight of God it was like the cup of cold
water which counterbalances the loftiest virtues. The prayers put up
by two feeble nuns and a priest represented the whole Monarchy, and
possibly at the same time, the Revolution found expression in the
stranger, for the remorse in his face was so great that it was
impossible not to think that he was fulfilling the vows of a boundless
repentance.
When the priest came to the Latin words, Introibo ad altare Dei, a
sudden divine inspiration flashed upon him; he looked at the three
kneeling figures, the representatives of Christian France, and said
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: were made in rapid succession, and even the Christchurch Cemetery
receiving tomb was crammed with coffins of the unembalmed dead.
This circumstance was not without effect on West, who thought
often of the irony of the situation -- so many fresh specimens,
yet none for his persecuted researches! We were frightfully overworked,
and the terrific mental and nervous strain made my friend brood
morbidly.
But West’s gentle enemies were no less harassed with
prostrating duties. College had all but closed, and every doctor
of the medical faculty was helping to fight the typhoid plague.
Dr. Halsey in particular had distinguished himself in sacrificing
Herbert West: Reanimator |
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 Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: winding through green meadows and fields covered with daisies and
buttercups and past groups of shady trees. There were no houses
of any sort to be seen, and for some distance they met with no living
creature at all.
Dorothy began to fear they were getting a good way from the
farm-house, since here everything was strange to her; but it would do
no good at all to go back where the other roads all met, because the
next one they chose might lead her just as far from home.
She kept on beside the shaggy man, who whistled cheerful tunes to
beguile the journey, until by and by they followed a turn in the road
and saw before them a big chestnut tree making a shady spot over the
The Road to Oz |
