| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: Of less moment which were in my first copy, for fear of being
censured as tedious and trifling, whereof travellers are often,
perhaps not without justice, accused.
CHAPTER II.
[A description of the farmer's daughter. The author carried to a
market-town, and then to the metropolis. The particulars of his
journey.]
My mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of towardly
parts for her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skilful in
dressing her baby. Her mother and she contrived to fit up the
baby's cradle for me against night: the cradle was put into a
Gulliver's Travels |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: obliged to lose her again in detail.
The eye eventually becomes accustomed to the light of a cellar.
In short, it sufficed for him to have an apparition of Cosette
every day. His whole life was concentrated in that one hour.
He seated himself close to her, he gazed at her in silence, or he
talked to her of years gone by, of her childhood, of the convent,
of her little friends of those bygone days.
One afternoon,--it was on one of those early days in April,
already warm and fresh, the moment of the sun's great gayety,
the gardens which surrounded the windows of Marius and Cosette felt
the emotion of waking, the hawthorn was on the point of budding,
Les Miserables |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: Chamber without asking Rastignac what he promised to tell you about a
suit you are to render a decision on two days hence. It concerns my
cousin here; I'll go and see you to-morrow morning early about it."
The three friends followed the three deputies, at a distance, into the
lobby.
"Cousin, look at those two men," said Leon, pointing out to him a
former minister and the leader of the Left Centre. "Those are two men
who really have 'the ear of the Chamber,' and who are called in jest
ministers of the department of the Opposition. They have the ear of
the Chamber so completely that they are always pulling it."
"It is four o'clock," said Bixiou, "let us go back to the rue de
|
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 Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: Mills, sitting silent with his air of watchful intelligence, seemed
to read my thoughts, waved his pipe slightly and explained: "The
Captain is from South Carolina."
"Oh," I murmured, and then after the slightest of pauses I heard
the second of Mr. J. K. Blunt's declarations.
"Yes," he said. "Je suis Americain, catholique et gentil-homme,"
in a tone contrasting so strongly with the smile, which, as it
were, underlined the uttered words, that I was at a loss whether to
return the smile in kind or acknowledge the words with a grave
little bow. Of course I did neither and there fell on us an odd,
equivocal silence. It marked our final abandonment of the French
The Arrow of Gold |
