| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: light gal, yaas, she mek' nouvena in St. Rocque fo' hees love."
"I give you one lil' charm, yaas," said the Wizened One when the
seance was over, and Manuela, all white and nervous, leaned back
in the rickety chair. "I give you one lil' charm fo' to ween him
back, yaas. You wear h'it 'roun' you' wais', an' he come back.
Den you mek prayer at St. Rocque an' burn can'le. Den you come
back an' tell me, yaas. Cinquante sous, ma'amzelle. Merci.
Good luck go wid you."
Readjusting her veil, Manuela passed out the little wicket gate,
treading on air. Again the sun shone, and the breath of the
swamps came as healthful sea-breeze unto her nostrils. She
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: somewhat like a bully seeking to pick a quarrel?[14]
[13] Like Biron, "L. L. L." v. 2. 854. Or, "you are a clever
caricaturist." See Plat. "Symp." 215 A; Hug, "Enleitung," xiv.;
Aristoph. "Birds," 804 (Frere, p. 173); "Wasps," 1309.
[14] Aristoph. "Frogs," 857, "For it ill beseems illustrious bards to
scold like market-women." (Frere, p. 269); "Knights," 1410, "to
bully"; "Eccles." 142:
{kai loidorountai g' osper empepokotes,
kai ton paroinount' ekpherous' oi toxotai.}
Yes (replied the jester), he has a striking likeness to that person
and a heap of others. He bristles with metaphors.
The Symposium |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: have said, the garden was a solitude. Soon, however,--as Giovanni
had half hoped, half feared, would be the case,--a figure
appeared beneath the antique sculptured portal, and came down
between the rows of plants, inhaling their various perfumes as if
she were one of those beings of old classic fable that lived upon
sweet odors. On again beholding Beatrice, the young man was even
startled to perceive how much her beauty exceeded his
recollection of it; so brilliant, so vivid, was its character,
that she glowed amid the sunlight, and, as Giovanni whispered to
himself, positively illuminated the more shadowy intervals of the
garden path. Her face being now more revealed than on the former
Mosses From An Old Manse |
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: hunger, deaf to the shrill cries of his wife calling him to the
evening meal. When, roused from his sad meditations by the first
roll of the evening thunderstorm, he stumbled slowly towards the
glimmering light of his old house, his half-dead hope made his
ears preternaturally acute to any sound on the river. Several
nights in succession he had heard the splash of paddles and had
seen the indistinct form of a boat, but when hailing the shadowy
apparition, his heart bounding with sudden hope of hearing Dain's
voice, he was disappointed each time by the sulky answer
conveying to him the intelligence that the Arabs were on the
river, bound on a visit to the home-staying Lakamba. This caused
Almayer's Folly |
