| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: fierce in her eager haste.
"If I were t' witch dwarf, if I had t' money, wud hur thank me?
Wud hur take me out o' this place wid hur and Janey? I wud not
come into the gran' house hur wud build, to vex hur wid t'
hunch,--only at night, when t' shadows were dark, stand far off
to see hur."
Mad? Yes! Are many of us mad in this way?
"Poor Deb! poor Deb!" he said, soothingly.
"It is here," she said, suddenly, jerking into his hand a small
roll. "I took it! I did it! Me, me!--not hur! I shall be
hanged, I shall be burnt in hell, if anybody knows I took it!
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: "It was the first time you ever said no, dear, and
it hurt. I'm happy again now. If you'll just let me
see you in the shop for five minutes I'll never ask you
again."
"All right--tomorrow when you get out of school.
I'll take you down. Holy Mike, that was a dandy kiss!
Let's quarrel again--start something else."
She rose laughing and brushed the last trace of
tears from her eyes.
"Let's eat dinner now--I'm hungry."
"By George, I'd forgot all about the feed!"
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: looked distant and peaceful and strange. The shore seemed refined, far
away, unreal. Already the little distance they had sailed had put them
far from it and given it the changed look, the composed look, of
something receding in which one has no longer any part. Which was
their house? She could not see it.
"But I beneath a rougher sea," Mr Ramsay murmured. He had found the
house and so seeing it, he had also seen himself there; he had seen
himself walking on the terrace, alone. He was walking up and down
between the urns; and he seemed to himself very old and bowed. Sitting
in the boat, he bowed, he crouched himself, acting instantly his part--
the part of a desolate man, widowed, bereft; and so called up before
To the Lighthouse |
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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: frothy jets leaped from the corners of all the buildings; and it
seemed as though whitish cloths hung dimly upon the walls, and the
washed temple-roofs shone black in the gleam of the lightning.
Torrents descended from the Acropolis by a thousand paths; houses
suddenly gave way, and small beams, plaster, rubbish, and furniture
passed along in streams which ran impetuously over the pavement.
Amphoras, flagons, and canvases had been placed out of doors; but the
torches were extinguished; brands were taken from the funeral-pile of
the Baal, and the Carthaginians bent back their necks and opened their
mouths to drink. Others by the side of the miry pools, plunged their
arms into them up to the armpits, and filled themselves so abundantly
Salammbo |
