| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: easily forgot the petty stipulations of pride, and the cold
hesitancies of suspicion. At first, indeed, they could only express
themselves by a pressure of hands which interpreted their happy
thoughts.
After slowing pacing a few steps in long silence, Mademoiselle de
Fontaine spoke. "Monsieur, I have a question to ask you," she said
trembling, and in an agitated voice. "But, remember, I beg, that it is
in a manner compulsory on me, from the rather singular position I am
in with regard to my family."
A pause, terrible to Emilie, followed these sentences, which she had
almost stammered out. During the minute while it lasted, the girl,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Make the young old, the old become a child. 1152
'It shall suspect where is no cause of fear;
It shall not fear where it should most mistrust;
It shall be merciful, and too severe,
And most deceiving when it seems most just; 1156
Perverse it shall be, where it shows most toward,
Put fear to velour, courage to the coward.
'It shall be cause of war and dire events,
And set dissension 'twixt the son and sire; 1160
Subject and servile to all discontents,
As dry combustious matter is to fire:
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: the child within you.' And when the child was born and the young woman
strong, the old woman took a cloth and filled it with all the grain that
was in the basket; and she put the grain on the young woman's head and tied
the child on her back, and said, 'Go, keeping always along the bank of the
river, till you come north to the land where our people are gone; and some
day you can send and fetch me.' And the young woman said, 'Have you corn
in the basket to last till they come?' And she said, 'I have enough.' And
she sat at the broken door of the cave and watched the young woman go down
the hill and up the river bank till she was hidden by the bush; and she
looked down at the plain below, and she saw the spot where the kraal had
been and where she had planted mealies when she was a young girl--"
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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 Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: swiftly passed Mahotin just upon the declivity. He caught a
glimpse of his mud-stained face as he Sashed by. He even fancied
that he smiled. Vronsky passed Mahotin, but he was immediately
aware of him close upon him, and he never ceased hearing the
even-thudding hoofs and the rapid and still quite fresh breathing
of Gladiator.
The next two obstacles, the water-course and the barrier, were
easily crossed, but Vronsky began to hear the snorting and thud
of Gladiator closer upon him. He urged on his mare, and to his
delight felt that she easily quickened her pace, and the thud of
Gladiator's hoofs was again heard at the same distance away.
Anna Karenina |
