| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: procedure, remain distinct.
It is this fact, the consciousness on the part of the women taking their
share in the Woman's Movement of our age, that their efforts are not, and
cannot be, of immediate advantage to themselves, but that they almost of
necessity and immediately lead to loss and renunciation, which gives to
this movement its very peculiar tone; setting it apart from the large mass
of economic movements, placing it rather in a line with those vast
religious developments which at the interval of ages have swept across
humanity, irresistibly modifying and reorganising it.
It is the perception of this fact, that, not for herself, nor even for
fellow-women alone, but for the benefit of humanity at large, it is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: slowly over her, relaxing her strained nerves and
exhausted body. He knew, then...he knew...it was
because he knew that he had married her, and that he
sat there in the darkness to show her she was safe with
him. A stir of something deeper than she had ever
felt in thinking of him flitted through her tired
brain, and cautiously, noiselessly, she let her head
sink on the pillow....
When she woke the room was full of morning light, and
her first glance showed her that she was alone in it.
She got up and dressed, and as she was fastening her
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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 When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: cages, since these were too cumbersome for active work of the
sort, and painted all over with various pigments, were just about
to swing me after him into the same, or another canoe, when
something happened. I did not know what it was, but as a result,
my captors left hold of me so that I fell to the rock, lying upon
my back.
Then, within my line of vision, which, it must be remembered,
was limited because I could not lift my head, appeared the upper
part of the tall person of the Ancient who said that he was named
Oro. I could only see him down to his middle, but I noted vaguely
that he seemed to be much changed. For instance, he wore a
When the World Shook |
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 The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: had experienced in my encounters with the other Beast Men.
"You, he said, "in the boat." He was a man, then,--at least as much
of a man as Montgomery's attendant,--for he could talk.
"Yes," I said, "I came in the boat. From the ship."
"Oh!" he said, and his bright, restless eyes travelled over me,
to my hands, to the stick I carried, to my feet, to the tattered places
in my coat, and the cuts and scratches I had received from the thorns.
He seemed puzzled at something. His eyes came back to my hands.
He held his own hand out and counted his digits slowly, "One, two,
three, four, five--eigh?"
I did not grasp his meaning then; afterwards I was to find that
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
