| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: friend, rushed out of the cottage. Felix darted forward, and with
supernatural force tore me from his father, to whose knees I clung,
in a transport of fury, he dashed me to the ground and struck me
violently with a stick. I could have torn him limb from limb, as
the lion rends the antelope. But my heart sank within me as with
bitter sickness, and I refrained. I saw him on the point of
repeating his blow, when, overcome by pain and anguish, I quitted
the cottage, and in the general tumult escaped unperceived to my hovel."
Chapter 16
"Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant,
did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: said the prisoner was afraid to encounter his antagonist in fair
fight, or to submit to the laws of the ring; and that therefore,
like a cowardly Italian, he had recourse to his fatal stiletto,
to murder the man whom he dared not meet in manly encounter. I
observed the prisoner shrink from this part of the accusation
with the abhorrence natural to a brave man; and as I would wish
to make my words impressive when I point his real crime, I must
secure his opinion of my impartiality by rebutting everything
that seems to me a false accusation. There can be no doubt that
the prisoner is a man of resolution--too much resolution. I wish
to Heaven that he had less--or, rather that he had had a better
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