| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: SECOND SOLDAT. Nous ne comprenons jamais ce qu'il dit, princesse.
SALOME. Oui, il dit des choses monstrueuses d'elle.
UN ESCLAVE. Princesse, le tetrarque vous prie de retourner au
festin.
SALOME. Je n'y retournerai pas.
LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Pardon, princesse, mais si vous n'y retourniez pas
il pourrait arriver un malheur.
SALOME. Est-ce un vieillard, le prophete?
LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Princesse, il vaudrait mieux retourner.
Permettez-moi de vous reconduire.
SALOME. Le prophete . . . est-ce un vieillard?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: or with nothing.
Yes, I said; I know with my soul.
The man will answer more than the question; for I did not ask you, he said,
with what you know, but whether you know with something.
Again I replied, Through ignorance I have answered too much, but I hope
that you will forgive me. And now I will answer simply that I always know
what I know with something.
And is that something, he rejoined, always the same, or sometimes one
thing, and sometimes another thing?
Always, I replied, when I know, I know with this.
Will you not cease adding to your answers?
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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 Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: Princess of Oz, but she does not like to be called a princess, and
because she is simple and sweet and does not pretend to be anything
but an ordinary little girl, she is called just "Dorothy" by everybody
and is the most popular person, next to Ozma, in all the Land of Oz.
One morning Dorothy crossed the hall of the palace and knocked on
the door of another girl named Trot, also a guest and friend of Ozma.
When told to enter, Dorothy found that Trot had company, an old
sailor-man with one wooden leg and one meat leg, who was sitting by
the open window puffing smoke from a corn-cob pipe. This sailor-man
was named Cap'n Bill, and he had accompanied Trot to the Land of Oz
and was her oldest and most faithful comrade and friend. Dorothy
The Magic of Oz |
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 The Professor by Charlotte Bronte: five minutes before two, and on reaching the schoolroom door,
before I opened it, I heard a rapid, gabbling sound, which warned
me that the "priere du midi" was not yet concluded. I waited the
termination thereof; it would have been impious to intrude my
heretical presence during its progress. How the repeater of the
prayer did cackle and splutter! I never before or since heard
language enounced with such steam-engine haste. "Notre Pere qui
etes au ciel" went off like a shot; then followed an address to
Marie "vierge celeste, reine des anges, maison d'or, tour
d'ivoire!" and then an invocation to the saint of the day; and
then down they all sat, and the solemn (?) rite was over; and I
The Professor |
