| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: husband ought to be. He had given her a good position--she shared his
prospects--he had treated her invariably with great consideration. He
reviewed his conduct with a kind of dismal pride. It had been
irreproachable. Then, why? For love? Profanation! There could be no
love there. A shameful impulse of passion. Yes, passion. His own wife!
Good God! . . . And the indelicate aspect of his domestic misfortune
struck him with such shame that, next moment, he caught himself in the
act of pondering absurdly over the notion whether it would not be more
dignified for him to induce a general belief that he had been in the
habit of beating his wife. Some fellows do . . . and anything would be
better than the filthy fact; for it was clear he had lived with the
Tales of Unrest |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: DEU 25:2 And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten,
that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his
face, according to his fault, by a certain number.
DEU 25:3 Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he
should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy
brother should seem vile unto thee.
DEU 25:4 Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
DEU 25:5 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no
child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her
husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and
perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.
King James Bible |
