| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: I returned to my room, Conseil to his cabin; but the Canadian,
with a preoccupied air, followed me. Our rapid passage across
the Mediterranean had not allowed him to put his project
into execution, and he could not help showing his disappointment.
When the door of my room was shut, he sat down and looked
at me silently.
"Friend Ned," said I, "I understand you; but you cannot reproach yourself.
To have attempted to leave the Nautilus under the circumstances would
have been folly."
Ned Land did not answer; his compressed lips and frowning brow showed
with him the violent possession this fixed idea had taken of his mind.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: persuade even London to take its conscience and its brains with
it when it goes to the theatre, instead of leaving them at home
with its prayer-book as it does at present. Consequently, I am
the last man in the world to deny that if the net effect of
performing Mrs Warren's Profession were an increase in the number
of persons entering that profession, its performance should be
dealt with accordingly.
Now let us consider how such recruiting can be encouraged by the
theatre. Nothing is easier. Let the King's Reader of Plays,
backed by the Press, make an unwritten but perfectly well
understood regulation that members of Mrs Warren's profession
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: that by the first note I humm'd I found myself flying into the other world,
and from thence discovered the vale from whence I came, so deep, so low,
and dismal, that I shall never have the heart to descend into it again.
> A dwarf who brings a standard along with him to measure his own size--
take my word, is a dwarf in more articles than one.--And so much for
tearing out of chapters.
Chapter 2.LXI.
--See if he is not cutting it into slips, and giving them about him to
light their pipes!--'Tis abominable, answered Didius; it should not go
unnoticed, said doctor Kysarcius--> he was of the Kysarcii of the Low
Countries.
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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 The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: she was on the verge of saying to herself, "What a strange dream
I am having."
The low tones of Jaffir's voice stole into it quietly telling the
men to cease paddling, and the long canoe came to a rest slowly,
no more than ten yards from the beach. The party had been
provided with a torch which was to be lighted before the canoe
touched the shore, thus giving a character of openness to this
desperate expedition. "And if it draws fire on us," Jaffir had
commented to Jorgenson, "well, then, we shall see whose fate it
is to die on this night."
"Yes," had muttered Jorgenson. "We shall see."
The Rescue |
