| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: At bottom as mortal as whate'er we mark
To perish by force before our gazing eyes.
But my appeal is to the proofs above
That things cannot fall back to naught, nor yet
From naught increase. And now again, since food
Augments and nourishes the human frame,
'Tis thine to know our veins and blood and bones
And thews are formed of particles unlike
To them in kind; or if they say all foods
Are of mixed substance having in themselves
Small bodies of thews, and bones, and also veins
Of The Nature of Things |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: pretence on our coat-of-arms, those of the house of d'Espard, an old
family of Bearn, connected in the female line with that of Albret:
quarterly, paly of or and sable; and azure two griffins' claws armed,
gules in saltire, with the famous motto Des partem leonis. At the time
of this alliance we lost Negrepelisse, a little town which was as
famous during the religious struggles as was my ancestor who then bore
the name. Captain de Negrepelisse was ruined by the burning of all his
property, for the Protestants did not spare a friend of Montluc's.
"The Crown was unjust to M. de Negrepelisse; he received neither a
marshal's baton, nor a post as governor, nor any indemnity; King
Charles IX., who was fond of him, died without being able to reward
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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 The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Promise more speed, but do it leisurely:
Even so this pattern of the worn-out age
Pawn'd honest looks, but laid no words to gage.
His kindled duty kindled her mistrust,
That two red fires in both their faces blaz'd;
She thought he blush'd, as knowing Tarquin's lust,
And, blushing with him, wistly on him gaz'd;
Her earnest eye did make him more amaz'd:
The more saw the blood his cheeks replenish,
The more she thought he spied in her some blemish.
But long she thinks till he return again,
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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 Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: murdered; with colours and drums, and the singing of old French
psalms, their bands sometimes affronted daylight, marched before
walled cities, and dispersed the generals of the king; and
sometimes at night, or in masquerade, possessed themselves of
strong castles, and avenged treachery upon their allies and cruelty
upon their foes. There, a hundred and eighty years ago, was the
chivalrous Roland, 'Count and Lord Roland, generalissimo of the
Protestants in France,' grave, silent, imperious, pock-marked ex-
dragoon, whom a lady followed in his wanderings out of love. There
was Cavalier, a baker's apprentice with a genius for war, elected
brigadier of Camisards at seventeen, to die at fifty-five the
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