| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: Ronquerolles, one of the ablest diplomates after Talleyrand, who had
served with de Marsay during his short ministry, had been informed by
his niece of the real worth and character of Comte Paz, and knew how
modestly he made himself the steward of his friend Laginski.
"And why is this the first time I have the pleasure of seeing Comte
Paz?" asked the marquis.
"Because he is so shy and retiring," replied Clementine with a look at
Paz telling him to change his behavior.
Alas! that we should have to avow it, at the risk of rendering the
captain less interesting, but Paz, though superior to his friend Adam,
was not a man of parts. His apparent superiority was due to his
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tanach: 2_Chronicles 29: 16 And the priests went in unto the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court of the house of the LORD. And the Levites took it, to carry it out abroad to the brook Kidron.
2_Chronicles 29: 17 Now they began on the first day of the first month to sanctify, and on the eighth day of the month came they to the porch of the LORD; and they sanctified the house of the LORD in eight days; and on the sixteenth day of the first month they made an end.
2_Chronicles 29: 18 Then they went in to Hezekiah the king within the palace, and said: 'We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, even the altar of burnt-offering, with all the vessels thereof, and the table of showbread, with all the vessels thereof.
2_Chronicles 29: 19 Moreover all the vessels, which king Ahaz in his reign did cast away when he acted treacherously, have we prepared and sanctified; and, behold, they are before the altar of the LORD.'
2_Chronicles 29: 20 Then Hezekiah the king arose early, and gathered the princes of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.
2_Chronicles 29: 21 And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he-goats, for a sin-offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer them on the altar of the LORD.
The Tanach |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: and one, strangely enough, destined to reveal to the world the
mystical meaning of wine and the real beauties of the lilies of the
field as none, either on Cithaeron or at Enna, had ever done.
The song of Isaiah, 'He is despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces
from him,' had seemed to him to prefigure himself, and in him the
prophecy was fulfilled. We must not be afraid of such a phrase.
Every single work of art is the fulfilment of a prophecy: for
every work of art is the conversion of an idea into an image.
Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy:
for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal,
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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 American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: something that glittered as it moved very swiftly. A ponderous
Irish gentleman, with priest's cords in his hat and a small
nickel-plated badge on his fat bosom, emerged from the knot
supporting a Chinaman who had been stabbed in the eye and was
bleeding like a pig. The by-standers went their ways, and the
Chinaman, assisted by the policeman, his own. Of course this was
none of my business, but I rather wanted to know what had
happened to the gentleman who had dealt the stab. It said a
great deal for the excellence of the municipal arrangement of the
town that a surging crowd did not at once block the street to see
what was going for-ward. I was the sixth man and the last who
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