| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: "I found a rose walking up the street, Lucy," he bellowed up the
stairs, "and I brought it home for the dinner table."
Lucy came down, flushed from her final effort over the trunks, but
gently hospitable.
"It's fish night, Elizabeth," she said. "You know Minnie's a
Catholic, so we always have fish on Friday. I hope you eat it."
She put her hand on Elizabeth's arm and gently patted it, and thus
was Elizabeth taken into the old brick house as one of its own.
Elizabeth was finding this period of her tacit engagement rather
puzzling. Her people puzzled her. Even Dick did, at times. And
nobody seemed anxious to make plans for the future, or even to
The Breaking Point |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: Not too late. Three years after, the Quaker began her work. I
end my story here. At evening-time it was light. There is no
need to tire you with the long years of sunshine, and fresh air,
and slow, patient Christ-love, needed to make healthy and
hopeful this impure body and soul. There is a homely pine
house, on one of these hills, whose windows overlook broad,
wooded slopes and clover-crimsoned meadows,--niched into the
very place where the light is warmest, the air freest. It is
the Friends' meeting-house. Once a week they sit there, in
their grave, earnest way, waiting for the Spirit of Love to
speak, opening their simple hearts to receive His words. There
Life in the Iron-Mills |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: actions were spurred by some internal cause of painful
excitement; and such a spectator, too, might also have observed
how often she broke off the snatches of songs or tunes which she
hummed, apparently without knowing what she was doing, in order
to cast a hasty glance from the door of the hut. Whatever might
be in the mind of Hamish, his demeanour was directly the reverse
of that adopted by his mother. Having finished the task of
cleaning and preparing his arms, which he arranged within the
hut, he sat himself down before the door of the bothy, and
watched the opposite hill, like the fixed sentinel who expects
the approach of an enemy. Noon found him in the same unchanged
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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 Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: from the fire towards the shelter of "Almayer's Folly."
In that manner did Almayer move into his new house. He took
possession of the new ruin, and in the undying folly of his heart
set himself to wait in anxiety and pain for that forgetfulness
which was so slow to come. He had done all he could. Every
vestige of Nina's existence had been destroyed; and now with
every sunrise he asked himself whether the longed-for oblivion
would come before sunset, whether it would come before he died?
He wanted to live only long enough to be able to forget, and the
tenacity of his memory filled him with dread and horror of death;
for should it come before he could accomplish the purpose of his
Almayer's Folly |
