| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: goodbye.
"Tomorrow, then, after five--I shall expect you,"
she said; and then turned back to make room for Mr.
Dagonet.
"Tomorrow--" Archer heard himself repeating,
though there had been no engagement, and during their
talk she had given him no hint that she wished to see
him again.
As he moved away he saw Lawrence Lefferts, tall
and resplendent, leading his wife up to be introduced;
and heard Gertrude Lefferts say, as she beamed on the
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: of secret motive, in which the vulgar antagonism to everything
privileged and autocratic--likewise a second and more refined
atheism--is once more disguised. "Ni dieu, ni maitre"--that,
also, is what you want; and therefore "Cheers for natural law!"--
is it not so? But, as has been said, that is interpretation, not
text; and somebody might come along, who, with opposite
intentions and modes of interpretation, could read out of the
same "Nature," and with regard to the same phenomena, just the
tyrannically inconsiderate and relentless enforcement of the
claims of power--an interpreter who should so place the
unexceptionalness and unconditionalness of all "Will to Power"
Beyond Good and Evil |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from King James Bible: ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes
and my judgments, as did David his father.
KI1 11:34 Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand:
but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my
servant's sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my
statutes:
KI1 11:35 But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will
give it unto thee, even ten tribes.
KI1 11:36 And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant
may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have
chosen me to put my name there.
King James Bible |
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 Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: Zeppelin and an apple dumpling. So I know it can't be a skirt.
Come on, Emma; tell your old man!"
"Not yet," Emma would reply dreamily.
Buck would strike an attitude intended to intimidate.
"If you have no sense of what is due me as your husband, then I
demand, as senior partner of this firm, to know what it is that
is taking your time, which rightfully belongs to this business."
"Go away, T. A., and stop pestering me! What do you think I'm
designing--a doily?"
Buck, turning to go to his own office, threw a last retort over
his shoulder--a rather sobering one, this time.
Emma McChesney & Co. |
