| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy: copy of the local paper, and was hardly conscious of her
entry, so that she looked at him quite coolly, and saw how
his forehead shone where the light caught it, and how nicely
his hair was cut, and the sort of velvet-pile or down that
was on the skin at the back of his neck, and how his cheek
was so truly curved as to be part of a globe, and how
clearly drawn were the lids and lashes which hid his bent
eyes.
She set down the tray, spread his supper, and went away
without a word. On her arrival below the landlady, who was
as kind as she was fat and lazy, saw that Elizabeth-Jane was
The Mayor of Casterbridge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: [Enter Mouse, the Clown, running, crying:
clubs.]
MOUSE.
Clubs, prongs, pitchforks, bills! O help! a bear,
a bear, a bear, a bear!
SEGASTO.
Still bears, and nothing else but bears. Tell me,
sirrah, where she is.
MOUSE.
O sir, she is run down the woods: I see her white
head and her white belly.
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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 The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: of the dying day came doubts; he cast an anxious eye into the future.
Sounding it, and finding there uncertainty and danger, he asked his
soul if courage would fail him. A vague dread seized his mind as he
thought of Natalie left wholly to herself; he repented the step he had
taken; he regretted Paris and his life there. Suddenly sea-sickness
overcame him. Every one knows the effect of that disorder. The most
horrible of its sufferings devoid of danger is a complete dissolution
of the will. An inexplicable distress relaxes to their very centre the
cords of vitality; the soul no longer performs its functions; the
sufferer becomes indifferent to everything; the mother forgets her
child, the lover his mistress, the strongest man lies prone, like an
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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 Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: dared not pause to note. She drew it gently off, and as it slipped
from Evelina's shoulders it revealed a tiny black bag hanging on a
ribbon about her neck. Evelina lifted her hand as though to screen
the bag from Ann Eliza; and the elder sister, seeing the gesture,
continued her task with lowered eyes. She undressed Evelina as
quickly as she could, and wrapping her in the plaid dressing-gown
put her to bed, and spread her own shawl and her sister's cloak
above the blanket.
"Where's the old red comfortable?" Evelina asked, as she sank
down on the pillow.
"The comfortable? Oh, it was so hot and heavy I never used it
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