| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: was often given me."
"I had not thought Mr. Darcy so bad as this-- though I have
never liked him. I had not thought so very ill of him. I had
supposed him to be despising his fellow-creatures in general, but
did not suspect him of descending to such malicious revenge,
such injustice, such inhumanity as this."
After a few minutes' reflection, however, she continued, "I DO
remember his boasting one day, at Netherfield, of the
implacability of his resentments, of his having an unforgiving
temper. His disposition must be dreadful."
"I will not trust myself on the subject," replied Wickham; "_I_
Pride and Prejudice |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: portion of several boards holding together had fallen
across the rail, and one end protruded overboard, like a
gangway leading upon nothing, like a gangway leading
over the deep sea, leading to death--as if inviting us to
walk the plank at once and be done with our ridiculous
troubles. And still the air, the sky--a ghost, something
invisible was hailing the ship.
"Someone had the sense to look over, and there was
the helmsman, who had impulsively jumped overboard,
anxious to come back. He yelled and swam lustily like
a merman, keeping up with the ship. We threw him a
Youth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: hole that was most filled up; his back was to me, but it
was bright moonlight and I knowed him by his old green
baize work-gown with a splattery white patch in the middle
of the back like somebody had hit him with a snowball.
HE WAS BURYING THE MAN HE'D MURDERED!"
And he slumped down in his chair crying and sobbing,
and 'most everybody in the house busted out wailing,
and crying, and saying, "Oh, it's awful--awful--
horrible! and there was a most tremendous excitement,
and you couldn't hear yourself think; and right in the
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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 A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: efforts of our own, and that the people who had shunned us with the
strongest detestation were yet lovers of truth, and came to us on
their own accord. Nothing could be more grossly absurd than the
reproaches which the Abyssinian ecclesiastics aspersed us and our
religion with. They had taken advantage of the calamity that
happened the year of our arrival: and the Abyssins, with all their
wit, did not consider that they had often been distressed by the
grasshoppers before there came any Jesuits into the country, and
indeed before there were any in the world.
Whilst I was in these mountains, I went on Sundays and saints' days
sometimes to one church and sometimes to another. One day I went
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