| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: took wings, his long tramps over the thorny brakes of Paris, his
breathless chases as a petitioner, his attempts to win over fools; the
schemes laid only to fail through the influence of some frivolous
woman; the meetings with men of business who expected their capital to
bring them places and a peerage, as well as large interest. Then the
hopes rising in a towering wave only to break in foam on the shoal;
the wonders wrought in reconciling adverse interests which, after
working together for a week, fell asunder; the annoyance, a thousand
times repeated, of seeing a dunce decorated with the Legion of Honor,
and preferred, though as ignorant as a shop-boy, to a man of talent.
Then, what Marcas called the stratagems of stupidity--you strike a
|
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: back from her brow with a puzzled, thoughtful
gesture. "You see," he went on calmly, "mea-
sured by your standards here, I'm a failure.
I couldn't buy even one of your cornfields.
I've enjoyed a great many things, but I've
got nothing to show for it all."
"But you show for it yourself, Carl. I'd
rather have had your freedom than my land."
Carl shook his head mournfully. "Freedom
O Pioneers! |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: supper-time, and the duke is is probably waiting; come let us go to
supper, and retire to rest early, for the journey you made yesterday
from Kandy was not such a short one but that it must have caused you
some fatigue."
"I feel none, senora," said Don Quixote, "for I would go so far as
to swear to your excellence that in all my life I never mounted a
quieter beast, or a pleasanter paced one, than Clavileno; and I
don't know what could have induced Malambruno to discard a steed so
swift and so gentle, and burn it so recklessly as he did."
"Probably," said the duchess, "repenting of the evil he had done
to the Trifaldi and company, and others, and the crimes he must have
Don Quixote |
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 King James Bible: DEU 19:4 And this is the case of the slayer, which shall flee thither,
that he may live: Whoso killeth his neighbour ignorantly, whom he hated
not in time past;
DEU 19:5 As when a man goeth into the wood with his neighbour to hew
wood, and his hand fetcheth a stroke with the axe to cut down the tree,
and the head slippeth from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour,
that he die; he shall flee unto one of those cities, and live:
DEU 19:6 Lest the avenger of the blood pursue the slayer, while his
heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and slay him;
whereas he was not worthy of death, inasmuch as he hated him not in time
past.
King James Bible |
