| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: joy, and startings which shook him to the heels, pumped up the blood
by breastfuls; then he quietly sat down upon the corpse, raised his
face with his neck thrown back the better to breathe in the air, like
a hind that has just drunk at a mountain stream, and in a shrill voice
began to sing a Balearic song, a vague melody full of prolonged
modulations, with interruptions and alternations like echoes answering
one another in the mountains; he called upon his dead brothers and
invited them to a feast;--then he let his hands fall between his legs,
slowly bent his head, and wept. This atrocious occurrence horrified
the Barbarians, especially the Greeks.
From that time forth the Carthaginians did not attempt to make any
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: one Seven-hundred-and-fiftieth or other, with whom neither the issue nor
the man is closely considered, that one, the President, on the contrary,
is the elect of the nation, and the act of his election is the trump
card, that, the sovereign people plays out once every four years. The
elected National Assembly stands in a metaphysical, but the elected
President in a personal, relation to the nation. True enough, the
National Assembly presents in its several Representatives the various
sides of the national spirit, but, in the President, this spirit is
incarnated. As against the National Assembly, the President possesses a
sort of divine right, he is by the grace of the people.
Thetis, the sea-goddess, had prophesied to Achilles that he would die in
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: in a few minutes had the sailor tied hand and foot. Then he
dragged him without and laid him by the side of the cabin, where
he could overlook the river and watch the sun climb to the
meridian.
"Now I'll give you till noon, and then--"
"Wot?"
"You'll be hitting the brimstone trail. But if you speak up, I'll
keep you till the next bunch of mounted police come by."
"Well, Gawd blime me, if this ain't a go! 'Ere I be, innercent as
a lamb, an' 'ere you be, lost all o' your top 'amper an' out o'
your reckonin', run me foul an' goin' to rake me into 'ell-fire.
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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 St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: I gave her my hand; she mounted like a bird into the chaise;
Rowley, grinning from ear to ear, closed the door behind us; the
two impudent rascals of post-boys cheered and laughed aloud as we
drove off; and my own postillion urged his horses at once into a
rattling trot. It was plain I was supposed by all to have done a
very dashing act, and ravished the bride from the ravisher.
In the meantime I stole a look at the little lady. She was in a
state of pitiable discomposure, and her arms shook on her lap in
her black lace mittens.
'Madam - ' I began.
And she, in the same moment, finding her voice: 'O, what you must
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