| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: were dead and gone, and lying down in the deep waters. Many a night have I got
up to see if the wind had not changed: and changed it had, sure enough; but
you never came. I remember so well one day, when the rain was pouring down in
torrents, the scavengers were before the house where I was in service, and I
had come up with the dust, and remained standing at the door--it was dreadful
weather--when just as I was there, the postman came and gave me a letter. It
was from you! What a tour that letter had made! I opened it instantly and
read: I laughed and wept. I was so happy. In it I read that you were in warm
lands where the coffee-tree grows. What a blessed land that must be! You
related so much, and I saw it all the while the rain was pouring down, and I
standing there with the dust-box. At the same moment came someone who embraced
Fairy Tales |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: in diameter, and 30 feet in height. It was composed of
black and vitreous lava, mixed with fragments of felspar.
And lastly, on the 10th of March, a smaller island, called Reka,
showed itself near Nea Kamenni, and since then these three have
joined together, forming but one and the same island."
"And the canal in which we are at this moment?" I asked.
"Here it is," replied Captain Nemo, showing me a map of the Archipelago.
"You see, I have marked the new islands."
I returned to the glass. The Nautilus was no longer moving,
the heat was becoming unbearable. The sea, which till now had
been white, was red, owing to the presence of salts of iron.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: you can never hope to do exactly right. All you can do is to
make as sure as possible; and for that there is but one rule.
Nothing should be done in a hurry that can be done slowly.
It is no use to write a book and put it by for nine or even
ninety years; for in the writing you will have partly
convinced yourself; the delay must precede any beginning; and
if you meditate a work of art, you should first long roll the
subject under the tongue to make sure you like the flavour,
before you brew a volume that shall taste of it from end to
end; or if you propose to enter on the field of controversy,
you should first have thought upon the question under all
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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 Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: any artist, with the assistance only of earthly art, to produce such a
picture: a holy, divine power has guided thy brush, and the blessing
of Heaven rested upon thy labour!'
"By that time I had completed my education at the academy, received
the gold medal, and with it the joyful hope of a journey to Italy--the
fairest dream of a twenty-year-old artist. It only remained for me to
take leave of my father, from whom I had been separated for twelve
years. I confess that even his image had long faded from my memory. I
had heard somewhat of his grim saintliness, and rather expected to
meet a hermit of rough exterior, a stranger to everything in the
world, except his cell and his prayers, worn out, tried up, by eternal
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
