| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: broken railways and other lumber which had been lying about
the rock. After landing these at Arbroath, she took on board
James Craw, with his horse and cart, which could now be spared
at the workyard, to be employed in carting the stones from
Edinburgh to Leith. Alexander Davidson and William Kennedy,
two careful masons, were also sent to take charge of the
loading of the stones at Greenside, and stowing them on board
of the vessel at Leith. The writer also went on board, with a
view to call at the Bell Rock and to take his passage up the
Firth of Forth. The wind, however, coming to blow very fresh
from the eastward, with thick and foggy weather, it became
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Aeneid by Virgil: Their lives for godlike freedom they bequeath,
And crowd each other to be first in death.
Meantime to Turnus, ambush'd in the shade,
With heavy tidings came th' unhappy maid:
"The Volscians overthrown, Camilla kill'd;
The foes, entirely masters of the field,
Like a resistless flood, come rolling on:
The cry goes off the plain, and thickens to the town."
Inflam'd with rage, (for so the Furies fire
The Daunian's breast, and so the Fates require,)
He leaves the hilly pass, the woods in vain
Aeneid |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: lucky thing for me that I have so many. I am going to bring them
into the market and sell them to the Burgomaster's daughter, and
buy back my wheelbarrow with the money.'
"'Buy back your wheelbarrow? You don't mean to say you have sold
it? What a very stupid thing to do'!
"'Well, the fact is,' said Hans, 'that I was obliged to. You see
the winter was a very bad time for me, and I really had no money at
all to buy bread with. So I first sold the silver buttons off my
Sunday coat, and then I sold my silver chain, and then I sold my
big pipe, and at last I sold my wheelbarrow. But I am going to buy
them all back again now.'
|
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 Middlemarch by George Eliot: "Oh, there is a great deal in the feeling for art which must
be acquired," said Will. (It was impossible now to doubt the
directness of Dorothea's confession.) "Art is an old language
with a great many artificial affected styles, and sometimes
the chief pleasure one gets out of knowing them is the mere
sense of knowing. I enjoy the art of all sorts here immensely;
but I suppose if I could pick my enjoyment to pieces I should
find it made up of many different threads. There is something
in daubing a little one's self, and having an idea of the process."
"You mean perhaps to be a painter?" said Dorothea, with a new
direction of interest. "You mean to make painting your profession?
Middlemarch |
