| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: Seraphita,--for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where
he now was.
Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were
light and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all
things were at once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each
interpenetrated the other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and
the Angels could survey it from the depths of the Infinite.
They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken
to them.
The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space
into which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But,
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: a single animal comprehending in itself all other animals, mortal and
immortal. Now of the divine, he himself was the creator, but the creation
of the mortal he committed to his offspring. And they, imitating him,
received from him the immortal principle of the soul; and around this they
proceeded to fashion a mortal body, and made it to be the vehicle of the
soul, and constructed within the body a soul of another nature which was
mortal, subject to terrible and irresistible affections,--first of all,
pleasure, the greatest incitement to evil; then, pain, which deters from
good; also rashness and fear, two foolish counsellors, anger hard to be
appeased, and hope easily led astray;--these they mingled with irrational
sense and with all-daring love according to necessary laws, and so framed
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: crowns and broken bones."
"Then I hold all Nottingham men to be cowards," said the Sheriff. "And let
me see the man in all Nottinghamshire that dare disobey the warrant of our
sovereign lord King Harry, for, by the shrine of Saint Edmund, I will hang him
forty cubits high! But if no man in Nottingham dare win fourscore angels,
I will send elsewhere, for there should be men of mettle somewhere
in this land."
Then he called up a messenger in whom he placed great trust, and bade
him saddle his horse and make ready to go to Lincoln Town to see whether
he could find anyone there that would do his bidding and win the reward.
So that same morning the messenger started forth upon his errand.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
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 End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: something of that. The world had progressed since
that time.
Mr. Van Wyk demurred with unexpected acrimony.
Progressed in what? he wanted to know.
Why, in knowledge of truth, in decency, in justice, in
order--in honesty too, since men harmed each other
mostly from ignorance. It was, Captain Whalley con-
cluded quaintly, more pleasant to live in.
Mr. Van Wyk whimsically would not admit that Mr.
Massy, for instance, was more pleasant naturally than
the Balinini pirates.
End of the Tether |
