| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: recognized Lockhard, the confidential domestic of Sir William
Ashton. The man bowed, slipt a letter into his hand, and
disappeared. The packet contained four close-written folios,
from which, however, as is sometimes incident to the compositions
of great lawyers, little could be extracted, excepting that the
writer felt himself in a very puzzling predicament.
Sir William spoke at length of his high value and regard for his
dear young friend, the Master of Ravenswood, and of his very
extreme high value and regard for the Marquis of A----, his very
dear old friend; he trusted that any measures that they might
adopt, in which he was concerned, would be carred on with due
The Bride of Lammermoor |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Rom. Why such is loues transgression.
Griefes of mine owne lie heauie in my breast,
Which thou wilt propagate to haue it preast
With more of thine, this loue that thou hast showne,
Doth adde more griefe, to too much of mine owne.
Loue, is a smoake made with the fume of sighes,
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in Louers eyes,
Being vext, a Sea nourisht with louing teares,
What is it else? a madnesse, most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preseruing sweet:
Farewell my Coze
Romeo and Juliet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: before the ban of one man, whom his enemies themselves do not pronounce
an adept at witchcraft. Universal suffrage seems to have survived only
for a moment, to the end that, before the eyes of the whole world, it
should make its own testament with its own hands, and, in the name of
the people, declare: "All that exists deserves to perish."
It is not enough to say, as the Frenchmen do, that their nation was
taken by surprise. A nation, no more than a woman, is excused for the
unguarded hour when the first adventurer who comes along can do violence
to her. The riddle is not solved by such shifts, it is only formulated
in other words. There remains to be explained how a nation of
thirty-six millions can be surprised by three swindlers, and taken to
|
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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Halts were now more frequent, but I did not wish to speak
to Dian until I could see from the expression of her face
how she was receiving my apologies. At last a faint
glow ahead forewarned us of the end of the tunnel,
for which I for one was devoutly thankful. Then at a sudden
turn we emerged into the full light of the noonday sun.
But with it came a sudden realization of what meant
to me a real catastrophe--Dian was gone, and with her
a half-dozen other prisoners. The guards saw it too,
and the ferocity of their rage was terrible to behold.
Their awesome, bestial faces were contorted in the most
At the Earth's Core |
