| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: necklace, ear-rings, bracelets, and all.
"But the gown isn't right, Tess," said Clare. "It
ought to be a low one for a set of brilliants like
that."
"Ought it?" said Tess.
"Yes," said he.
He suggested to her how to tuck in the upper edge of
her bodice, so as to make it roughly approximate to the
cut for evening wear; and when she had done this, and
the pendant to the necklace hung isolated amid the
whiteness of her throat, as it was designed to do, he
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: and then dead silence. The Piache, suddenly restored to life,
jumped upright, and recommenced preaching at Amyas.
"Tell the howling villain to make short work of it, lad! His tune
won't do after that last one."
The lad, grinning, informed Amyas that the Piache signified their
acceptance as friends by the Daughter of the Sun; that her friends
were theirs, and her foes theirs. Whereon the Indians set up a
scream of delight, and Amyas, rolling another tobacco leaf up in
another strip of plantain, answered,--
"Then let her give us some cassava," and lighted a fresh cigar.
Whereon the door of the hut opened, and the Indians prostrated
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: language, the purport of which I was quite ignorant of, and for a
very good reason. But the result of this first conversation was, that
Baron Trampe placed himself entirely at the service of Professor
Liedenbrock.
My uncle was just as courteously received by the mayor, M. Finsen,
whose appearance was as military, and disposition and office as
pacific, as the Governor's.
As for the bishop's suffragan, M. Picturssen, he was at that moment
engaged on an episcopal visitation in the north. For the time we must
be resigned to wait for the honour of being presented to him. But M.
Fridrikssen, professor of natural sciences at the school of
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
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 Hiero by Xenophon: be the ablest of men? Why should all men envy the despotic monarch?
For the all-sufficient reason (he replied) that they form conclusions
on the matter without experience of the two conditions. And I will try
to prove to you the truth of what I say, beginning with the faculty of
vision, which, unless my memory betrays me, was your starting-point.
Well then, when I come to reason[13] on the matter, first of all I
find that, as regards the class of objects of which these orbs of
vision are the channel,[14] the despot has the disadvantage. Every
region of the world, each country on this fair earth, presents objects
worthy of contemplation, in quest of which the ordinary citizen will
visit, as the humour takes him, now some city [for the sake of
|
