| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Hero of Our Time by M.Y. Lermontov: reverie. . . I felt the necessity of pouring forth
my thoughts in friendly conversation. . . But
with whom? . . .
"What is Vera doing now?" I wondered.
I would have given much to press her hand at
that moment.
All at once I heard rapid and irregular
steps. . . Grushnitski, no doubt! . . . So it
was!
"Where have you come from?"
"From Princess Ligovski's," he said very
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: help the touch of regret that would forever come with all her
thoughts of happiness.
"We stood right there between the windows," she added, "and
the minister stood here. William wouldn't come in. He was always
odd about seein' folks, just's he is now. I run to meet 'em from
a child, an' William, he'd take an' run away."
"I've been the gainer," said the old mother cheerfully.
"William has been son an' daughter both since you was married off
the island. He's been 'most too satisfied to stop at home 'long o'
his old mother, but I always tell 'em I'm the gainer."
We were all moving toward the kitchen as if by common
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: Agamemnon; but the son of Capaneus took up his words and said,
"Son of Atreus, tell no lies, for you can speak truth if you
will. We boast ourselves as even better men than our fathers; we
took seven-gated Thebes, though the wall was stronger and our men
were fewer in number, for we trusted in the omens of the gods and
in the help of Jove, whereas they perished through their own
sheer folly; hold not, then, our fathers in like honour with us."
Diomed looked sternly at him and said, "Hold your peace, my
friend, as I bid you. It is not amiss that Agamemnon should urge
the Achaeans forward, for the glory will be his if we take the
city, and his the shame if we are vanquished. Therefore let us
The Iliad |
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 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: be so ready to think your own children silly. If I wished to think
slightingly of anybody's children, it should not be of my own,
however."
"If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it."
"Yes-- but as it happens, they are all of them very clever."
"This is the only point, I flatter myself, on which we do not
agree. I had hoped that our sentiments coincided in every
particular, but I must so far differ from you as to think our two
youngest daughters uncommonly foolish."
"My dear Mr. Bennet, you must not expect such girls to have
the sense of their father and mother. When they get to our age, I
Pride and Prejudice |
