| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: with all their might, to try if they could make their companions
hear; but all was to no purpose. Then they came all close in a
ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which indeed we
heard, and the echoes made the woods ring. But it was all one;
those in the cave, we were sure, could not hear; and those in our
keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer
to them. They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as
they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again to
their ship, and let them know that the men were all murdered, and
the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their
boat again, and got all of them on board.
Robinson Crusoe |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Desert Gold by Zane Grey: her perfect mouth. With a quick, graceful impulsiveness she put
her hand upon his shoulder. Like her appearance, the action was
new, strange, striking to Gale; but it brought home suddenly to him
the nature of gratitude and affection in a girl of her blood. It was
sweet and sisterly. He knew then that he had not fallen in love
with her. The feeling that was akin to jealousy seemed to be of
the beautiful something for which Mercedes stood in Thorne's life.
Gale then grasped the bewildering possibilities, the infinite wonder
of what a girl could mean to a man.
The other haunting intimations of change seemed to be elusively
blended with sensations--the heat and thrill of action, the sense
Desert Gold |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Europeans by Henry James: He believed--although it must be added that he had not quite
the courage to declare it--in the doctrine of wild oats,
and thought it a useful preventive of superfluous fears.
If Mr. Wentworth and Charlotte and Mr. Brand would
only apply it in Clifford's case, they would be happier;
and Acton thought it a pity they should not be happier.
They took the boy's misdemeanors too much to heart; they talked
to him too solemnly; they frightened and bewildered him.
Of course there was the great standard of morality, which forbade
that a man should get tipsy, play at billiards for money,
or cultivate his sensual consciousness; but what fear was there
|
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 Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many
years, he had never ventured forth--in regard to an influence
whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here
to be re-stated--an influence which some peculiarities in the
mere form and substance of his family mansion, had, by
dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit--an
effect which the physique of the grey walls and turrets, and
of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length,
brought about upon the morale of his existence.
He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of
the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a
The Fall of the House of Usher |
