| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: diligence in the pursuit of what is usually held to be useless
knowledge, he would never have fallen in love with this young lady; as
it was, out of the three hundred guests that crowded the handsome
rooms in the Rue Saint-Lazare, he alone comprehended the unpublished
romance revealed by a garrulous quadrille. People certainly noticed
Isaure d'Aldrigger's dancing; but in this present century the cry is
'Skim lightly over the surface, do not lean your weight on it;' so one
said (he was a notary's clerk), 'There is a girl that dances
uncommonly well;' another (a lady in a turban), 'There is a young lady
that dances enchantingly;' and a third (a woman of thirty), 'That
little thing is not dancing badly.'--But to return to the great
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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 Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: masses below them--one very important item in that duty being, the
doing the whole fighting of the country at their own expense,
instead of leaving it to a standing army of mercenaries, at the beck
and call of a despot; and that, as M. de Tocqueville says: "In
feudal times, the Nobility were regarded pretty much as the
government is regarded in our own; the burdens they imposed were
endured in consequence of the security they afforded. The nobles
had many irksome privileges; they possessed many onerous rights:
but they maintained public order, they administered justice, they
caused the law to be executed, they came to the relief of the weak,
they conducted the business of the community. In proportion as they
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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 Moby Dick by Herman Melville: a white church to the larboard, and then keeping that on the larboard
hand till we made a corner three points to the starboard, and that
done, then ask the first man we met where the place was: these
crooked directions of his very much puzzled us at first, especially
as, at the outset, Queequeg insisted that the yellow warehouse--our
first point of departure--must be left on the larboard hand, whereas
I had understood Peter Coffin to say it was on the starboard.
However, by dint of beating about a little in the dark, and now and
then knocking up a peaceable inhabitant to inquire the way, we at
last came to something which there was no mistaking.
Two enormous wooden pots painted black, and suspended by asses' ears,
Moby Dick |
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 Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: "If we do this now it will be worse afterward--worse
for every one--"
"No--no--no!" she almost screamed, as if he frightened her.
At that moment the bell sent a long tinkle through
the house. They had heard no carriage stopping at the
door, and they stood motionless, looking at each other
with startled eyes.
Outside, Nastasia's step crossed the hall, the outer
door opened, and a moment later she came in carrying
a telegram which she handed to the Countess Olenska.
"The lady was very happy at the flowers," Nastasia
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