| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: "A female curate, who is not my wife, would never suit me. With me,
then, it seems, you cannot go: but if you are sincere in your
offer, I will, while in town, speak to a married missionary, whose
wife needs a coadjutor. Your own fortune will make you independent
of the Society's aid; and thus you may still be spared the dishonour
of breaking your promise and deserting the band you engaged to
join."
Now I never had, as the reader knows, either given any formal
promise or entered into any engagement; and this language was all
much too hard and much too despotic for the occasion. I replied -
"There is no dishonour, no breach of promise, no desertion in the
Jane Eyre |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: Neither.
Nor is there any existing thing which can be attributed to it; for if there
had been, it would partake of being?
That is clear.
And therefore neither smallness, nor greatness, nor equality, can be
attributed to it?
No.
Nor yet likeness nor difference, either in relation to itself or to others?
Clearly not.
Well, and if nothing should be attributed to it, can other things be
attributed to it?
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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 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: the village. It had a crazy board fence around it,
which leaned inward in places, and outward the rest
of the time, but stood upright nowhere. Grass and
weeds grew rank over the whole cemetery. All the
old graves were sunken in, there was not a tombstone
on the place; round-topped, worm-eaten boards stag-
gered over the graves, leaning for support and finding
none. "Sacred to the memory of" So-and-So had been
painted on them once, but it could no longer have been
read, on the most of them, now, even if there had
been light.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
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 A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: relating to her the horrible scene of the morning, and begging her
advice and assistance. Neither the one nor the other could then know
that du Tillet himself had lighted the charcoal of the vulgar brazier,
the sight of which had so justly terrified the countess.
"He has but me in all the world," said Marie to her sister, "and I
will not fail him."
That speech contains the secret motive of most women; they can be
heroic when they are certain of being all in all to a grand and
irreproachable being.
CHAPTER VIII
A LOVER SAVED AND LOST
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