| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome: Germans still. Troops fighting on the Ural front are fighting
a month later south of Voronezh, and a month later again
are having a holiday, marching on the heels of the Germans
as they evacuate the occupied provinces. Some of our
troops are not yet much good. One day they fight, and the
next they think they would rather not. So that our best
troops, those in which there are most workmen, have to be
flung in all directions. We are at work all the time enabling
this to be done, and making new roads to enable it to be
done still better. But what waste, when there are so many
other things we want to do!
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: A few days later the marquise acquired undeniable proofs that Eugene
had told the truth. For the last fortnight she has not been seen in
society.
The marquis tells all those who ask him the reason of this
seclusion:--
"My wife has an inflammation of the stomach."
But I, her physician, who am now attending her, know it is really
nothing more than a slight nervous attack, which she is making the
most of in order to stay quietly at home.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: and are more liable to become inflamed. On the other hand, these bones
must not be too low, or else the fetlock will be abraded or lacerated
when the horse is galloped over clods and stones.
[10] i.e. "the pasterns ({mesokunia}) and the coffin should be
'sloping.'"
[11] Or, "being too inflexible." Lit. "giving blow for blow, overuch
like anvil to hammer."
The bones of the shanks[12] ought to be thick, being as they are the
columns on which the body rests; thick in themselves, that is, not
puffed out with veins or flesh; or else in riding over hard ground
they will inevitably be surcharged with blood, and varicose conditions
On Horsemanship |
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 Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: the servants climbed the tree and tossed it down to the crowd, there
was enough to satisfy every person present.
Para Bruin, the rubber bear, climbed to a limb of the big tree, rolled
himself into a ball, and dropped to the platform, whence he bounded up
again to the limb. He repeated this bouncing act several times, to
the great delight of all the children present. After he had finished,
and bowed, and returned to his seat, Glinda waved her wand and the
tree disappeared; but its fruit still remained to be eaten.
The Good Witch of the North amused the people by transforming ten
stones into ten birds, the ten birds into ten lambs, and the ten lambs
into ten little girls, who gave a pretty dance and were then
The Road to Oz |
