| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: genie, a slave or a eunuch, black or white; always ready to feign joy
or sorrow, pity or astonishment, to utter cries that never vary, to
hold his tongue, to hunt, or fight for Rome or Egypt, but always at
heart--a huckster still.
At midnight he returns--a man, the good husband, the tender father; he
slips into the conjugal bed, his imagination still afire with the
illusive forms of the operatic nymphs, and so turns to the profit of
conjugal love the world's depravities, the voluptuous curves of
Taglioni's leg. And finally, if he sleeps, he sleeps apace, and
hurries through his slumber as he does his life.
This man sums up all things--history, literature, politics,
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: revolutionaries going home to their revolution, and trotted
excitedly up and down the carriage or anchored themselves
momentarily, first on one person's knee and then on
another's.
It was dusk when we reached Petrograd. The Finland
Station, of course, was nearly deserted, but here there
were four porters, who charged two hundred and fifty
roubles for shifting the luggage of the party from one end of
the platform to the other. We ourselves loaded it into the
motor lorry sent to meet us, as at Bieloostrov we had loaded
it into the van. There was a long time to wait while rooms
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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 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: every moment passing in and out, up the steps and down;
people whom nobody cared about, and nobody wanted to see;
and he only was absent. "What a delightful place Bath is,"
said Mrs. Allen as they sat down near the great clock,
after parading the room till they were tired; "and how
pleasant it would be if we had any acquaintance here."
This sentiment had been uttered so often in vain
that Mrs. Allen had no particular reason to hope it would
be followed with more advantage now; but we are told
to "despair of nothing we would attain," as "unwearied
diligence our point would gain"; and the unwearied diligence
Northanger Abbey |
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 Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: square from me, and it was the telephone exchange,
with a man operator reading a book in there. The
other was the telegraph room in the depot about a
hundred yards from me, and they was only two
fellers in it, both smoking. The main business part
of the town was built up around the square, like lots
of old-fashioned towns is, and they was jest enough
brightness from four, five electric lights to show the
shape of the square and be reflected from the
windows of the closed-up stores.
I knowed they was likely a watchman somewheres
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