| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: improperly called Gothic.
The larger part of the nave and aisles was left for the
townsfolk, who came and went and heard mass there. The choir was
shut off from the rest of the church by a grating and thick folds
of brown curtain, left slightly apart in the middle in such a way
that nothing of the choir could be seen from the church except
the high altar and the officiating priest. The grating itself
was divided up by the pillars which supported the organ loft; and
this part of the structure, with its carved wooden columns,
completed the line of the arcading in the gallery carried by the
shafts in the nave. If any inquisitive person, therefore, had
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: "No. I've trodden down the appetite. I'm a total abstainer."
"And you're not. . . those worse things that the papers say?"
"No."
"I knew it." Triumph rang in her voice. She breathed a generous
trust. To know him for a true man it was necessary only to look
into his fearless eyes set deep in the thin tanned face. It was
impossible for anything unclean to survive with his humorous
humility and his pervading sympathy and his love of truth. "I
didn't care what they said. I knew it all the time."
Her sweet faith was a thing to see with emotion. He felt tears
scorch the back of his eyes.
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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 Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: woman that is worth the trouble of being sought for when she
is once lost. Madame Bonacieux is lost; so much the worse
for her if she is found."
"No, Athos, no, you are mistaken," said D'Artagnan; "I love
my poor Constance more than ever, and if I knew the place in
which she is, were it at the end of the world, I would go to
free her from the hands of her enemies; but I am ignorant.
All my researches have been useless. What is to be said? I
must divert my attention!"
"Amuse yourself with Milady, my dear D'Artagnan; I wish you
may with all my heart, if that will amuse you."
The Three Musketeers |
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 Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: will be a hot supper of trout ready for us in five minutes."
It would be vain to attempt to give a daily record of the whole
journey in which we made this fair beginning. It was a most idle
and unsystematic pilgrimage. We wandered up and down, and turned
aside when fancy beckoned. Sometimes we hurried on as fast as the
horses would carry us, driving sixty or seventy miles a day;
sometimes we loitered and dawdled, as if we did not care whether we
got anywhere or not. If a place pleased us, we stayed and tried the
fishing. If we were tired of driving, we took to the water, and
travelled by steamer along a fjord, or hired a rowboat to cross from
point to point. One day we would be in a good little hotel, with
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