| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: a daughter's devotion as well as . . . Rodolphe! why will you not
understand! After all, however violent my passions may be, I shall be
yours for ever! What should I say to persuade you? I will invent
pleasures . . . I . . . Great heavens! one moment! whatever you shall
ask of me--to fling myself from the window for instance--you will need
to say but one word, 'Leon!' and I will plunge down into hell. I would
bear any torture, any pain of body or soul, anything you might inflict
upon me!"
Castanier heard her with indifference. For an answer, he indicated
Leon to her with a fiendish laugh.
"The guillotine is waiting for him," he repeated.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Rescue by Joseph Conrad: sooty mass of approaching vapours. After a moment he said curtly,
"Brace up for the port tack, Mr. Shaw," and remained silent, with
his face to the sea. A sound, sorrowful and startling like the
sigh of some immense creature, travelling across the starless
space, passed above the vertical and lofty spars of the
motionless brig.
It grew louder, then suddenly ceased for a moment, and the taut
rigging of the brig was heard vibrating its answer in a singing
note to this threatening murmur of the winds. A long and slow
undulation lifted the level of the waters, as if the sea had
drawn a deep breath of anxious suspense. The next minute an
The Rescue |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: had come. He began pointing out, as we passed them, certain houses which
were now, or had at some period been, the dwellings of his many
relatives: "My cousin Julia So-and-so lives there," he would say; or, "My
great-uncle, known as Regent Tom, owned that before the War"; and once,
"The Rev. Joseph Priedieu, my great-grandfather, built that house to
marry his fifth wife in, but the grave claimed him first."
So I asked him a riddle. "What is the difference between Kings Port and
Newport?"
This he, of course, gave up.
"Here you are all connected by marriage, and there they are all connected
by divorce."
|
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 Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: sallow man without a cap and with a very still face. Captain Jones
- let us call him Jones - had been caught unawares. Two orders he
had given at the first sign of an utterly unforeseen onset; after
that the magnitude of his mistake seemed to have overwhelmed him.
We were doing what was needed and feasible. The ship behaved well.
Of course, it was some time before we could pause in our fierce and
laborious exertions; but all through the work, the excitement, the
uproar, and some dismay, we were aware of this silent little man at
the break of the poop, perfectly motionless, soundless, and often
hidden from us by the drift of sprays.
When we officers clambered at last upon the poop, he seemed to come
The Mirror of the Sea |
