| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Night and Day by Virginia Woolf: the blinds conveyed nothing; the light was not moved. It signaled to
her across the dark street; it was a sign of triumph shining there for
ever, not to be extinguished this side of the grave. She brandished
her happiness as if in salute; she dipped it as if in reverence. "How
they burn!" she thought, and all the darkness of London seemed set
with fires, roaring upwards; but her eyes came back to Mary's window
and rested there satisfied. She had waited some time before a figure
detached itself from the doorway and came across the road, slowly and
reluctantly, to where she stood.
"I didn't go in--I couldn't bring myself," he broke off. He had stood
outside Mary's door unable to bring himself to knock; if she had come
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: a valuable client.
"I should be glad of any treatment that would cure me without
reducing me to a skeleton, like poor Grainger," said Mr. Vincy,
the mayor, a florid man, who would have served for a study of flesh
in striking contrast with the Franciscan tints of Mr. Bulstrode.
"It's an uncommonly dangerous thing to be left without any padding
against the shafts of disease, as somebody said,--and I think it a
very good expression myself."
Mr. Lydgate, of course, was out of hearing. He had quitted the
party early, and would have thought it altogether tedious but for
the novelty of certain introductions, especially the introduction
Middlemarch |
