| 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: With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends
Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries that, with the very noise,
I trembling wak'd, and for a season after
Could not believe but that I was in hell,
Such terrible impression made my dream.
KEEPER. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;
I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.
CLARENCE. Ah, Keeper, Keeper, I have done these things
That now give evidence against my soul
For Edward's sake, and see how he requites me!
Richard III |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: the full battery of her eyes upon him.
Mammy, who was waiting just inside the door, gave her an inscrutable
look and followed her, puffing, up the stairs to the bedroom. She
was silent while she stripped off the wet clothes and hung them over
chairs and tucked Scarlett into bed. When she had brought up a cup
of hot tea and a hot brick, rolled in flannel, she looked down at
Scarlett and said, with the nearest approach to an apology in her
voice Scarlett had ever heard: "Lamb, huccome you din' tell yo' own
Mammy whut you wuz upter? Den Ah wouldn' had ter traipse all dis
way up hyah ter 'Lanta. Ah is too ole an' too fat fer sech runnin'
roun'."
Gone With the Wind |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: to the small traders' or democratic party; it is betrayed by the latter
and allowed to fall on April 16, May 15, and in the June days. In its
turn, the democratic party leans upon the shoulders of the bourgeois
republicans; barely do the bourgeois republicans believe themselves
firmly in power, than they shake off these troublesome associates for
the purpose of themselves leaning upon the shoulders of the party of
Order. The party of Order draws in its shoulders, lets the bourgeois
republicans tumble down heels over head, and throws itself upon the
shoulders of the armed power. Finally, still of the mind that it is
sustained by the shoulders of the armed power, the party of Order
notices one fine morning that these shoulders have turned into bayonets.
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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 Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: supply. Each time they did so they held out a full glass to the
Italian, who could not reach it for himself because he sat in front of
the table, and each time the Italian thanked them with a friendly nod.
All their movements were made with the precision which always amazes
you so much at the Blind Asylum. You could almost think that they can
see. I came nearer to listen; but when I stood beside them, they
evidently guessed I was not a working man, and kept themselves to
themselves.
"What part of the world do you come from, you that are playing the
clarionet?"
"From Venice," he said, with a trace of Italian accent.
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