| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: Estelle Brousseaux, had found, drifting in the open Gulf
(latitude 26 degrees 43 minutes; longitude 88 degrees 17
minutes),--the corpse of a fair-haired woman, clinging to a
table. The body was disfigured beyond recognition: even the
slender bones of the hands had been stripped by the nibs of the
sea-birds-except one finger, the third of the left, which seemed
to have been protected by a ring of gold, as by a charm. Graven
within the plain yellow circlet was a date,--"JUILLET--1851" ;
and the names,--"ADELE + JULIEN,"--separated by a cross. The
Estelle carried coffins that day: most of them were already
full; but there was one for Adele.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: lives, such a ridiculous business as this has made of it?--Why, 'tis as
miserable a sight as a sow with one ear; and there is just as much sense
and symmetry in the one as in the other:--do--pray, get off your seats only
to take a view of it,--Now would any man who valued his character a straw,
have turned a piece of work out of his hand in such a condition?--nay, lay
your hands upon your hearts, and answer this plain question, Whether this
one single knob, which now stands here like a blockhead by itself, can
serve any purpose upon earth, but to put one in mind of the want of the
other?--and let me farther ask, in case the chair was your own, if you
would not in your consciences think, rather than be as it is, that it would
be ten times better without any knob at all?
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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 The Blue Flower by Henry van Dyke: resting upon their breasts, the sign of the followers of
Zoroaster.
They took their places around a small black altar at the
end of the room, where a tiny flame was burning. Artaban,
standing beside it, and waving a barsom of thin tamarisk
branches above the fire, fed it with dry sticks of pine and
fragrant oils. Then he began the ancient chant of the Yasna,
and the voices of his companions joined in the hymn to
Ahura-Mazda:
We worship the Spirit Divine,
all wisdom and goodness possessing,
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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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: these powerful souls they need a union with feminine souls of a
strength equal to their own? If I had been brought up like this siren,
our weapons at least might have been equal in the hour of struggle."
"But I am not at home!" The sharp, harsh words, though spoken in an
undertone in the adjoining boudoir, were heard by Augustine, and her
heart beat violently.
"The lady is in there," replied the maid.
"You are an idiot! Show her in," replied the Duchess, whose voice was
sweeter, and had assumed the dulcet tones of politeness. She evidently
now meant to be heard.
Augustine shyly entered the room. At the end of the dainty boudoir she
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