| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: with all his might.
"'Od damn it all!" she cried, "that ever I should say it!
You've over-stuck un! And I telling you all the time----"
"Do be quiet, Arabella, and have a little pity on the creature!"
"Hold up the pail to catch the blood, and don't talk!"
However unworkmanlike the deed, it had been mercifully done. The blood
flowed out in a torrent instead of in the trickling stream she had desired.
The dying animal's cry assumed its third and final tone, the shriek of agony;
his glazing eyes riveting themselves on Arabella with the eloquently keen
reproach of a creature recognizing at last the treachery of those who had
seemed his only friends.
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: Mr. Stuart went on. This adventurous trio had been trapping
higher up the river, but Robinson had come down in a canoe, to
await the expected arrival of the party, and obtain horses and
equipments. He told Reed the story of the robbery of his party by
the Arapahays, but it differed, in some particulars, from the
account given by him to Mr. Stuart. In that, he had represented
Cass as having shamefully deserted his companions in their
extremity, carrying off with him a horse; in the one now given,
he spoke of him as having been killed in the affray with the
Arapahays. This discrepancy, of which, of course, Reed could have
had no knowledge at the time, concurred with other circumstances,
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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 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: wondered as I walked away where he had got HIS tip.
CHAPTER V.
WHEN I spoke to George Corvick of the caution I had received he
made me feel that any doubt of his delicacy would be almost an
insult. He had instantly told Gwendolen, but Gwendolen's ardent
response was in itself a pledge of discretion. The question would
now absorb them and would offer them a pastime too precious to be
shared with the crowd. They appeared to have caught instinctively
at Vereker's high idea of enjoyment. Their intellectual pride,
however, was not such as to make them indifferent to any further
light I might throw on the affair they had in hand. They were
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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 Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and ferocious as their masters and held in subjection by
cruelty and brute force alone.
As we approached them they sniffed our unfamiliar scent
and with squeals of rage circled about us. Their long,
massive necks upreared raised their great, gaping mouths
high above our heads. They are fearsome appearing brutes at
best, but when they are aroused they are fully as dangerous
as they look. The thoat stands a good ten feet at the shoulder.
His hide is sleek and hairless, and of a dark slate colour
on back and sides, shading down his eight legs to a vivid
yellow at the huge, padded, nailless feet; the belly is pure
The Gods of Mars |
