| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: voluptuary."
Nevertheless, having made a clean breast of my misgivings and
reservations on the subject of lovers and landscape, I will now
confess that the whole of my doubts do not weigh much against my
unreasoned faith in romantic love. At heart I am no infidel, but a
most obstinate believer and devotee. My seasons of skepticism are
transient. They are connected with a torpid liver and aggravated by
confinement to a sedentary life and enforced abstinence from
angling. Out-of-doors, I return to a saner and happier frame of
mind.
As my wheel rolls along the Riverside Drive in the golden glow of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: Washington.
Chapter 4
A MEETING OF THE AUTOMOBILE CLUB
Was the mystery of the Great Eyrie to be solved some day by chances
beyond our imagining? That was known only to the future. And was the
solution a matter of the first importance? That was beyond doubt,
since the safety of the people of western Carolina perhaps depended
upon it.
Yet a fortnight after my return to Washington, public attention was
wholly distracted from this problem by another very different in
nature, but equally astonishing.
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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 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: cannot get at it--the savage, beautiful creature! If I tear, if I
rend the slight prison, my outrage will only let the captive loose.
Conqueror I might be of the house; but the inmate would escape to
heaven before I could call myself possessor of its clay dwelling-
place. And it is you, spirit--with will and energy, and virtue and
purity--that I want: not alone your brittle frame. Of yourself you
could come with soft flight and nestle against my heart, if you
would: seized against your will, you will elude the grasp like an
essence--you will vanish ere I inhale your fragrance. Oh! come,
Jane, come!"
As he said this, he released me from his clutch, and only looked at
Jane Eyre |
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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: It was upon his lips; yet at the hour of this distress he could
not disclose it. He preferred to dwell upon the recognized barriers
between them.
"Of course--I know you don't--care about me in any particular way,"
he sorrowed. "You ought not, and you are right. You belong to--
Mr. Phillotson. I suppose he has been to see you?"
"Yes," she said shortly, her face changing a little.
"Though I didn't ask him to come. You are glad, of course,
that he has been! But I shouldn't care if he didn't come
any more!"
It was very perplexing to her lover that she should be piqued at his honest
Jude the Obscure |
