| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Richard III by William Shakespeare: Enforc'd us to this execution?
MAYOR. Now, fair befall you! He deserv'd his death;
And your good Graces both have well proceeded
To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
I never look'd for better at his hands
After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.
BUCKINGHAM. Yet had we not determin'd he should die
Until your lordship came to see his end-
Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
Something against our meanings, have prevented-
Because, my lord, I would have had you heard
Richard III |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas: at least so D'Artagnan declares."
Just as the quaint conclusion reached by Porthos was about
to bring back hilarity to faces now more or less clouded,
hasty footsteps were heard upon the stair and some one
knocked at the door.
"Come in," cried Athos.
"Please your honors," said the host, "a person in a great
hurry wishes to speak to one of you."
"To which of us?" asked all the four friends.
"To him who is called the Comte de la Fere."
"It is I," said Athos, "and what is the name of the person?"
Twenty Years After |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: Glumdalclitch happened to be out of order; for I soon began to be
known and esteemed among the greatest officers, I suppose more
upon account of their majesties' favour, than any merit of my
own. In journeys, when I was weary of the coach, a servant on
horseback would buckle on my box, and place it upon a cushion
before him; and there I had a full prospect of the country on
three sides, from my three windows. I had, in this closet, a
field-bed and a hammock, hung from the ceiling, two chairs and a
table, neatly screwed to the floor, to prevent being tossed about
by the agitation of the horse or the coach. And having been long
used to sea-voyages, those motions, although sometimes very
Gulliver's Travels |
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 Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: according to the laws of anatomy. You color the features with flesh-
tones, mixed beforehand on your palette,--taking very good care to
shade one side of the face darker than the other; and because you draw
now and then from a nude woman standing on a table, you think you can
copy nature; you fancy yourselves painters, and imagine that you have
got at the secret of God's creations! Pr-r-r-r!--To be a great poet it
is not enough to know the rules of syntax and write faultless grammar.
Look at your saint, Porbus. At first sight she is admirable; but at
the very next glance we perceive that she is glued to the canvas, and
that we cannot walk round her. She is a silhouette with only one side,
a semblance cut in outline, an image that can't turn nor change her
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