| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: are its many-coloured floor of green, white, yellow, and blue;
the may-flower, and the woodbine, and the eglantine, and the ivy,
are its decorations, its curtains, and its tapestry: the lark,
and the thrush, and the linnet, and the nightingale, are its
unhired minstrels and musicians. Robin Hood is king of the forest
both by dignity of birth and by virtue of his standing army:
to say nothing of the free choice of his people, which he
has indeed, but I pass it by as an illegitimate basis of power.
He holds his dominion over the forest, and its horned multitude
of citizen-deer, and its swinish multitude or peasantry
of wild boars, by right of conquest and force of arms.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Chance by Joseph Conrad: thinking most while those infernal lawyers were badgering him in
court. Of you. And now I think of it perhaps the sight of you may
bring it all back to him. All these years, all these years--and you
his child left alone in the world. I would have gone crazy. For
even if he had done wrong--"
"But he hasn't," insisted Flora de Barral with a quite unexpected
fierceness. "You mustn't even suppose it. Haven't you read the
accounts of the trial?"
"I am not supposing anything," Anthony defended himself. He just
remembered hearing of the trial. He assured her that he was away
from England, the second voyage of the Ferndale. He was crossing
Chance |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: even now I can scarce grant that I committed it) I have no design
of entering; I mean but to point out the warnings and the
successive steps with which my chastisement approached. I met
with one accident which, as it brought on no consequence, I shall
no more than mention. An act of cruelty to a child aroused
against me the anger of a passer-by, whom I recognised the other
day in the person of your kinsman; the doctor and the child's
family joined him; there were moments when I feared for my life;
and at last, in order to pacify their too just resentment, Edward
Hyde had to bring them to the door, and pay them in a cheque drawn
in the name of Henry Jekyll. But this danger was easily
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde |
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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: From time to time he would mount to the cupola of the temple of
Eschmoun beside the Announcer of the Moons and take note of the wind.
One day--it was the third of the month of Tibby--they saw him
descending from the Acropolis with hurried steps. A great clamour
arose in the Mappalian district. Soon the streets were astir, and the
soldiers were everywhere beginning to arm themselves upon their
breasts; then they ran quickly to the square of Khamon to take their
places in the ranks. No one was allowed to follow them or even to
speak to them, or to approach the ramparts; for some minutes the whole
town was silent as a great tomb. The soldiers as they leaned on their
lances were thinking, and the others in the houses were sighing.
Salammbo |
