| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Not to believe, and yet too credulous;
Thy weal and woe are both of them extremes;
Despair and hope make thee ridiculous: 988
The one doth flatter thee in thoughts unlikely,
In likely thoughts the other kills thee quickly.
Now she unweaves the web that she hath wrought,
Adonis lives, and Death is not to blame; 992
It was not she that call'd him all to naught,
Now she adds honours to his hateful name;
She clepes him king of graves, and grave for kings,
Imperious supreme of all mortal things. 996
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from O Pioneers! by Willa Cather: wiping her eyes. "I don't want to move again;
out to some raw place, maybe, where we'd be
worse off than we are here, and all to do over
again. I won't move! If the rest of you go, I
will ask some of the neighbors to take me in,
and stay and be buried by father. I'm not
going to leave him by himself on the prairie,
for cattle to run over." She began to cry more
bitterly.
The boys looked angry. Alexandra put a
O Pioneers! |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: false position.
"Who sent you here?" said the duke to Christophe.
"Chaudieu, the minister," he replied.
"Young man, you lie!" said the soldier, sharply; "it was the Prince de
Conde."
"The Prince de Conde, monseigneur!" replied Christophe, with a puzzled
look. "I never met him. I am studying law with Monsieur de Thou; I am
his secretary, and he does not know that I belong to the Reformed
religion. I yielded only to the entreaties of the minister."
"Enough!" exclaimed the cardinal. "Call Monsieur de Robertet," he said
to Lewiston, "for this young scamp is slyer than an old statesman; he
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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 Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: better than a fool!"
"Well, they would make more than three millions, at a hundred and thirty
thousand a bushel, Pencroft."
"Three millions!" cried Pencroft.
"Three millions."
"In four years?"
"In four years," replied Cyrus Harding, "and even in two years, if, as I
hope, in this latitude we can obtain two crops a year."
At that, according to his usual custom, Pencroft could not reply
otherwise than by a tremendous hurrah.
"So, Herbert," added the engineer, "you have made a discovery of great
The Mysterious Island |
