| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: "And you hold that you've carried the scheme out?"
"The way I've carried it out is the thing in life I think a bit
well of myself for."
I had a pause. "Don't you think you ought - just a trifle - to
assist the critic?"
"Assist him? What else have I done with every stroke of my pen?
I've shouted my intention in his great blank face!" At this,
laughing out again, Vereker laid his hand on my shoulder to show
the allusion wasn't to my personal appearance.
"But you talk about the initiated. There must therefore, you see,
BE initiation."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: I was only a woman, and when I saw you again I could not help
weeping, but I did not give way.
Did I do right? That is what I ask myself to-day, as I lie ill in
my bed, that I shall never leave, perhaps, until I am dead.
You are witness of what I felt as the hour of our separation
approached; your father was no longer there to support me, and
there was a moment when I was on the point of confessing
everything to you, so terrified was I at the idea that you were
going to bate and despise me.
One thing which you will not believe, perhaps, Armand, is that I
prayed God to give me strength; and what proves that he accepted
Camille |
