| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: resigned to his fate. Mortal disease was slowly sapping the strength
of mind and body. Unaccountable and grotesque sick fancies preyed upon
him; he would not suffer them to set his room in order, no one could
nurse him, he would not even allow them to make his bed. All his
surroundings bore the marks of this last degree of apathy, the
furniture was out of place, the daintiest trifles were covered with
dust and cobwebs. In health he had been a man of refined and expensive
tastes, now he positively delighted in the comfortless look of the
room. A host of objects required in illness--rows of medicine bottles,
empty and full, most of them dirty, crumpled linen, and broken plates,
littered the writing-table, chairs, and chimney-piece. An open
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: By every coppice-feathered chasm and cleft,
Dropt through the ambrosial gloom to where below
No bigger than a glow-worm shone the tent
Lamp-lit from the inner. Once she leaned on me,
Descending; once or twice she lent her hand,
And blissful palpitations in the blood,
Stirring a sudden transport rose and fell.
But when we planted level feet, and dipt
Beneath the satin dome and entered in,
There leaning deep in broidered down we sank
Our elbows: on a tripod in the midst
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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 Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: conductor proceeded along General Wade's military road, which
never or rarely condescends to turn aside from the steepest
ascent, but proceeds right up and down hill, with the
indifference to height and hollow, steep or level, indicated by
the old Roman engineers. Still, however, the substantial
excellence of these great works--for such are the military
highways in the Highlands--deserved the compliment of the poet,
who, whether he came from our sister kingdom, and spoke in his
own dialect, or whether he supposed those whom he addressed might
have some national pretension to the second sight, produced the
celebrated couplet,--
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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 The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: creatures, who are obliged to live far apart, so as to secure
adequate hunting-grounds.
One morning, I catch the two harridans fighting out their quarrel
on the floor. The loser is laid flat upon her back; the victress,
belly to belly with her adversary, clutches her with her legs and
prevents her from moving a limb. Both have their poison-fangs wide
open, ready to bite without yet daring, so mutually formidable are
they. After a certain period of waiting, during which the pair
merely exchange threats, the stronger of the two, the one on top,
closes her lethal engine and grinds the head of the prostrate foe.
Then she calmly devours the deceased by small mouthfuls.
The Life of the Spider |
