| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: earth every day. It gave also a peculiar and almost
embarrassing directness to her mental processes, and suggested
in them a sort of final and absolute value, as if truth had for
the first time found a perfectly translucent medium. It was
not so much that she said rare things, but her very silence was
eloquent, and there was a great deal of it. Her girlhood had in
it a certain dignity as of a virgin priestess or sibyl. Yet
her hearty sympathies and her healthy energy made her at home
in daily life, and in a democratic society. To Kate, for
instance, she was a necessity of existence, like light or air.
Kate's nature was limited; part of her graceful equipoise was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 1984 by George Orwell: worked in the Fiction Department. Presumably--since he had sometimes seen
her with oily hands and carrying a spanner--she had some mechanical job
on one of the novel-writing machines. She was a bold-looking girl, of
about twenty-seven, with thick hair, a freckled face, and swift, athletic
movements. A narrow scarlet sash, emblem of the Junior Anti-Sex League, was
wound several times round the waist of her overalls, just tightly enough to
bring out the shapeliness of her hips. Winston had disliked her from the
very first moment of seeing her. He knew the reason. It was because of the
atmosphere of hockey-fields and cold baths and community hikes and general
clean-mindedness which she managed to carry about with her. He disliked
nearly all women, and especially the young and pretty ones. It was always
1984 |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: difficult, it would be impossible, to do justice to the somewhat
grave occurrences which have transpired.'
'I will not criticise your attitude,' replied the Prince. 'I desire
that, between you and me, all should be done gently; for I have not
forgotten, my old friend, that you were kind to me from the first,
and for a period of years a faithful servant. I will thus dismiss
the matters on which you waive immediate inquiry. But you have
certain papers actually in your hand. Come, Herr Greisengesang,
there is at least one point for which you have authority. Enlighten
me on that.'
'On that?' cried the old gentleman. 'O, that is a trifle; a matter,
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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 Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: something straight from God's hand. A thief! Well, what was it
to be a thief? He met the question at last, face to face,
wiping the clammy drops of sweat from his forehead. God made
this money--the fresh air, too--for his children's use. He
never made the difference between poor and rich. The Something
who looked down on him that moment through the cool gray sky had
a kindly face, he knew,--loved his children alike. Oh, he knew
that!
There were times when the soft floods of color in the crimson
and purple flames, or the clear depth of amber in the water
below the bridge, had somehow given him a glimpse of another
Life in the Iron-Mills |
