| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: she was merrily laughing at various things which she saw from the
coach-windows, as it rattled along.
* * * * * *
"Well, ladies," said St. Clare, as they were comfortably seated
at the dinner-table, "and what was the bill of fare at church today?"
"O, Dr. G---- preached a splendid sermon," said Marie.
"It was just such a sermon as you ought to hear; it expressed all
my views exactly."
"It must have been very improving," said St. Clare. "The subject
must have been an extensive one."
"Well, I mean all my views about society, and such things,"
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: were the only thing he deprecated in the lady of his choice, the lost
illusion might be coaxed back. The trouble was that deprecated something
fairly distant from cigarettes. The cake was my quite sufficient trouble;
it stuck in my throat worse than the probably magnified gossip I had
heard; this, for the present, I could manage to swallow.
He came out now with a personal note. "I suppose you think I'm a ninny."
"Never in the wildest dream!"
"Well, but too innocent for a man, anyhow."
"That would be an insult," I declared laughingly.
"For I'm not innocent in the least. You'll find we're all men here, just
as much as any men in the North you could pick out. South Carolina has
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Peter Pan by James M. Barrie: and at night it disturbed him like an insect. While Peter lived,
the tortured man felt that he was a lion in a cage into which a
sparrow had come.
The question now was how to get down the trees, or how to get
his dogs down? He ran his greedy eyes over them, searching for
the thinnest ones. They wriggled uncomfortably, for they knew he
would not scruple [hesitate] to ram them down with poles.
In the meantime, what of the boys? We have seen them at the
first clang of the weapons, turned as it were into stone figures,
open-mouthed, all appealing with outstretched arms to Peter; and
we return to them as their mouths close, and their arms fall to
Peter Pan |
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 Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: terious, and as mute as the faces of the dead who
are possessed of a knowledge beyond the compre-
hension of the living. I wonder whether the mem-
ory of her compassion prevented him from cutting
his throat. But there! I suppose I am an old sen-
timentalist, and forget the instinctive love of life
which it takes all the strength of an uncommon de-
spair to overcome.
"He did the work which was given him with an
intelligence which surprised old Swaffer. By-and-
by it was discovered that he could help at the
Amy Foster |
