| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Twilight Land by Howard Pyle: him have your daughter for his wife."
"Tell him to come!" cried the king, in admiration, "for the
princess is his."
The next morning when the Demon came he found the Tailor dancing
and shouting for joy. "The princess is mine!" he cried, "so make
me ready for her."
"It shall be done," said the Demon, and thereupon he began to
make the Tailor ready for his wedding. He brought him to a marble
bath of water, in which he washed away all that was coarse and
ugly, and from which the little man came forth as beautiful as
the sun. Then the Demon clad him in the finest linen, and covered
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: did not fight. I--I killed him."
"Killed him!" she cried, "how?"
"Why, as one kills anything. He stole my whole fortune and I took it
back, that's all. Juana, now that everything is quiet you must go down
to that heap of stones--you know the heap by the garden wall--and get
that money, since you haven't any in the house."
"The money that you stole?" said Juana.
"What does that matter to you? Have you any money to give me? I tell
you I must get away. They are on my traces."
"Who?"
"The people, the police."
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: them an extract from a letter from his uncle, Mr. Angus Shaw, one
of the principal partners of the Northwest Company, announcing
the coming of the Phoebe and Isaac Todd, "to take and destroy
everything American on the northwest coast."
This intelligence was received without dismay by such of the
clerks as were natives of the United States. They had felt
indignant at seeing their national flag struck by a Canadian
commander, and the British flag flowed, as it were, in their
faces. They had been stung to the quick, also, by the vaunting
airs assumed by the Northwesters. In this mood of mind, they
would willingly have nailed their colors to the staff , and
|
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 Recruit by Honore de Balzac: falseness of her position in the midst of a court noted for its
gallantry contributed much, no doubt, to draw a veil of melancholy
over a face where the charms and the vivacity of love must have shone
in earlier days. Obliged to repress the naive impulses and emotions of
a woman when she simply feels them instead of reflecting about them,
passion was still virgin in the depths of her heart. Her principal
attraction came, in fact, from this innate youth, which sometimes,
however, played her false, and gave to her ideas an innocent
expression of desire. Her manner and appearance commanded respect, but
there was always in her bearing, in her voice, a sort of looking
forward to some unknown future, as in girlhood. The most insensible
|
