| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: Where did he get it? Was it a badge--an ornament--a charm--
a propitiatory act? Was there any idea at all connected with it?
It looked startling round his black neck, this bit of white
thread from beyond the seas.
"Near the same tree two more bundles of acute angles sat with
their legs drawn up. One, with his chin propped on his knees,
stared at nothing, in an intolerable and appalling manner:
his brother phantom rested its forehead, as if overcome with a
great weariness; and all about others were scattered in every pose
of contorted collapse, as in some picture of a massacre or a pestilence.
While I stood horror-struck, one of these creatures rose to his hands
Heart of Darkness |
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 Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: afternoon three ladies were there: Miss Abby Simson, Mrs. John
Bates, and Mrs. Edward Lee. They sat in the Glynn sitting-room,
which shrilled with treble voices as if a flock of sparrows had
settled therein.
The Glynn sitting-room was charming, mainly because of the
quantity of flowering plants. Every window was filled with them,
until the room seemed like a conservatory. Ivy, too, climbed
over the pictures, and the mantel-shelf was a cascade of
wandering Jew, growing in old china vases.
"Your plants are really wonderful, Mrs. Glynn," said Mrs. Bates,
"but I don't see how you manage to get a glimpse of anything
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