| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: "She swallowed the laudanum; her soul was calm--the tempest
had subsided--and nothing remained but an eager longing to forget
herself--to fly from the anguish she endured to escape from
thought--from this hell of disappointment.
"Still her eyes closed not--one remembrance with frightful
velocity followed another--All the incidents of her life were in
arms, embodied to assail her, and prevent her sinking into the
sleep of death.--Her murdered child again appeared to her, mourning
for the babe of which she was the tomb.--'And could it have a
nobler?--Surely it is better to die with me, than to enter on life
without a mother's care!--I cannot live!--but could I have deserted
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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 The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: canoe was rather large it was moving very slowly. The two men
dipped their paddles without a splash: and surrendering herself
passively, in a temporary relaxation of all her limbs, to this
adventure Mrs. Travers had no sense of motion at all. She, too,
like Jorgenson, was tired of thinking. She abandoned herself to
the silence of that night full of roused passions and deadly
purposes. She abandoned herself to an illusory feeling; to the
impression that she was really resting. For the first time in
many days she could taste the relief of being alone. The men with
her were less than nothing. She could not speak to them; she
could not understand them; the canoe might have been moving by
The Rescue |
