| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: desert fell; the sound of its fall resounded far and wide, like a sigh
in the solitude; the soldier shuddered as though he had heard some
voice predicting woe.
But like an heir who does not long bewail a deceased relative, he tore
off from this beautiful tree the tall broad green leaves which are its
poetic adornment, and used them to mend the mat on which he was to
sleep.
Fatigued by the heat and his work, he fell asleep under the red
curtains of his wet cave.
In the middle of the night his sleep was troubled by an extraordinary
noise; he sat up, and the deep silence around allowed him to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: Stour valley above the town, all horrible with cement works and
foully smoking chimneys and rows of workmen's cottages, minute,
ugly, uncomfortable, and grimy. So I had my first intimation of
how industrialism must live in a landlord's land. I spent some
hours, too, in the streets that give upon the river, drawn by the
spell of the sea. But I saw barges and ships stripped of magic
and mostly devoted to cement, ice, timber, and coal. The sailors
looked to me gross and slovenly men, and the shipping struck me
as clumsy, ugly, old, and dirty. I discovered that most sails
don't fit the ships that hoist them, and that there may be as
pitiful and squalid a display of poverty with a vessel as with a
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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 Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: actions of others, saw plainly that his genial host was concealing
some excitement. When the latter had gone out the Councillor looked
after him, shaking his head. Then his glance fell by chance on the
quiet-looking man who had risen at his entrance and had not sat
down again.
"Please sit down," he said in a friendly tone, but the other did not
move. His grey eyes gazed intently at the man whose fate he was to
change so horribly.
Kniepp grew uneasy under the stare. "What is there that interests
you so about me?" he asked in a tone that was an attempt at a joke.
"The ring, the ring on your watch chain," murmured Muller.
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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 Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: always in the habit of associating with people of better
income than myself. Every year since my coming of age,
or even before, I believe, had added to my debts; and though
the death of my old cousin, Mrs. Smith, was to set me free;
yet that event being uncertain, and possibly far distant,
it had been for some time my intention to re-establish my
circumstances by marrying a woman of fortune. To attach
myself to your sister, therefore, was not a thing to be
thought of;--and with a meanness, selfishness, cruelty--
which no indignant, no contemptuous look, even of yours,
Miss Dashwood, can ever reprobate too much--I was acting
Sense and Sensibility |
