| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: {thalamois}, says: "Yet why speak of Timaeus, when even men like
Xenophon and Plato, the very demigods of literature, though they
had sat at the feet of Socrates, sometimes forget themselves in
the pursuit of such pretty conceits? The former in his account of
the Spartan Polity has these words: 'Their voice you would no more
hear, than if they were of marble, their gaze is as immovable as
if they were cast in bronze. You would deem them more modest than
the very maidens in their eyes.' To speak of the pupils of the
eyes as modest maidens was a piece of absurdity becoming
Amphicrates rather than Xenophon; and then what a strange notion
to suppose that modesty is always without exception, expressed in
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: lay silent and still, with his face half buried in the sand.
Levi, with the knife still gripped tight in his hand, stood
leaning over his victim, looking down upon his body. His shirt
and hand, and even his naked arm, were stained and blotched with
blood. The moon lit up his face and it was the face of a devil
from hell.
At last he gave himself a shake, stooped and wiped his knife and
hand and arm upon the loose petticoat breeches of the dead man.
He thrust his knife back into its sheath, drew a key from his
pocket and unlocked the chest. In the moonlight Hiram could see
that it was filled mostly with paper and leather bags, full,
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: had her orders, I guess. She spoke to me in French--told me I'd
had a shock and been very ill. I should be better soon. I
pretended to be rather dazed--murmured something about the
'doctor' having hurt my wrist. She looked relieved when I said
that.
"By and by she went out of the room altogether. I was suspicious
still, and lay quite quiet for some time. In the end, however, I
got up and walked round the room, examining it. I thought that
even if anyone WAS watching me from somewhere, it would seem
natural enough under the circumstances. It was a squalid, dirty
place. There were no windows, which seemed queer. I guessed the
Secret Adversary |
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 Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: kind is offensive to my chaste ears. I will only say, senora, that
whether it has might or not, that which it may or may not have shall
be devoted to your service even to death; and now, leaving this to its
proper season, I would ask the senor licentiate to tell me what it
is that has brought him into these parts, alone, unattended, and so
lightly clad that I am filled with amazement."
"I will answer that briefly," replied the curate; "you must know
then, Senor Don Quixote, that Master Nicholas, our friend and
barber, and I were going to Seville to receive some money that a
relative of mine who went to the Indies many years ago had sent me,
and not such a small sum but that it was over sixty thousand pieces of
Don Quixote |
