| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: I praise God for you.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE 3. The same. A room in the COUNTESS'S palace.
[Flourish. Enter KING, COUNTESS, LAFEU, Lords, Gentlemen, Guards,
&c.]
KING.
We lost a jewel of her; and our esteem
Was made much poorer by it: but your son,
As mad in folly, lack'd the sense to know
Her estimation home.
COUNTESS.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: themselves to be gained over by the inhabitants of Soulanges.
This last revolutionary measure, carried out with such rapidity that
there was no possibility of countermining it created much astonishment
in Soulanges and in Ville-aux-Fayes. Soudry, who felt himself
dismissed, complained bitterly, and Gaubertin managed to get him
appointed mayor, which put the gendarmerie under his orders. An outcry
was made about tyranny. Montcornet became an object of general hatred.
Not only were five or six lives radically changed by him, but many
personal vanities were wounded. The peasants, taking their cue from
words dropped by the small tradesmen of Ville-aux-Fayes and Soulanges,
and by Rigou, Langlume, Guerbet, and the postmaster at Conches,
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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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: light canoes and thousands of Indians going to and fro about their
business, till at length towards sunset we reached the battlemented
fort that is called Xoloc which stands upon the dyke. I say
stands, but alas! it stands no more. Cortes has destroyed it, and
with it all those glorious cities which my eyes beheld that day.
At Xoloc we began to enter the city of Tenoctitlan or Mexico, the
mightiest city that ever I had seen. The houses on the outskirts,
indeed, were built of mud or adobe, but those in the richer parts
were constructed of red stone. Each house surrounded a courtyard
and was in turn surrounded by a garden, while between them ran
canals, having footpaths on either side. Then there were squares,
Montezuma's Daughter |
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 Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: and slipped the wallet and its contents into his own pocket.
Then for the first time he appeared to observe Master Harry, who,
indeed, must have been standing, the perfect picture of horror
and dismay. Whereupon, bursting out a-laughing, and slipping the
pistol he had used back into its sling again, he fetched poor
Harry a great slap upon the back, bidding him be a man, for that
he would see many such sights as this.
But indeed, it was no laughing matter for poor Master Harry, for
it was many a day before his imagination could rid itself of the
image of the dead Spaniard's face; and as he walked away down
the street with his companions, leaving the crowd behind them,
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
