| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: Tottenham well enough able to look after himself.
I had embarked on my letter, there at the end of a corner-table of
the saloon, when I saw Dacres saunter through. He wore a very
conscious and elaborately purposeless air; and it jumped with my
mood that he had nothing less than the crisis of his life in his
pocket, and was looking for me. As he advanced towards me between
the long tables doubt left me and alarm assailed me. 'I'm glad to
find you in a quiet corner,' said he, seating himself, and confirmed
my worst anticipations.
'I'm writing to John,' I said, and again applied myself to my pen-
handle. It is a trick Cecily has since done her best in vain to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: must be cautious; I should not know where to hide it, he pokes his
nose in everywhere. In short, comfort your Valerie, your little
wife, the mother of your child.--To think of my having to write to
you, when I used to see you every day. As I say to Lisbeth, 'I did
not know how happy I was.' A thousand kisses, dear boy. Be true to
your
"VALERIE."
"And tears!" said Hulot to himself as he finished this letter, "tears
which have blotted out her name.--How is she?" said he to Reine.
"Madame is in bed; she has dreadful spasms," replied Reine. "She had a
fit of hysterics that twisted her like a withy round a faggot. It came
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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 Tanach: Numbers 5: 20 but if thou hast gone aside, being under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee besides thy husband--
Numbers 5: 21 then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman--the LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to fall away, and thy belly to swell;
Numbers 5: 22 and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to fall away'; and the woman shall say: 'Amen, Amen.'
Numbers 5: 23 And the priest shall write these curses in a scroll, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness.
Numbers 5: 24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causeth the curse; and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.
Numbers 5: 25 And the priest shall take the meal-offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the meal-offering before the LORD, and bring it unto the altar.
Numbers 5: 26 And the priest shall take a handful of the meal-offering, as the memorial-part thereof, and make it smoke upon the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water.
Numbers 5: 27 And when he hath made her drink the water, then it shall come to pass, if she be defiled, and have acted unfaithfully against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away; and the woman shall be a curse among her people.
Numbers 5: 28 And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be cleared, and shall conceive seed.
The Tanach |
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 Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: that he was the Hippocrates of his young sister, whose delicate health
required great care.
"Monsieur is perhaps a medical man?" asked one of Emilie's sisters-in-
law with ironical meaning.
"Monsieur has left the Ecole Polytechnique," Mademoiselle de Fontaine
kindly put in; her face had flushed with richer color, as she learned
that the young lady of the ball was Monsieur Longueville's sister.
"But, my dear, he may be a doctor and yet have been to the Ecole
Polytechnique--is it not so, monsieur?"
"There is nothing to prevent it, madame," replied the young man.
Every eye was on Emilie, who was gazing with uneasy curiosity at the
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