| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: This, dear, is no intrigue, no adventure; no gallantry, as you men
say, can come of it, I warn you frankly. It involves my life, and
more than that,--something that causes me remorse for the many
thoughts that fly to you in flocks--it involves my father's and my
mother's life. I adore them, and my choice must please them; they
must find a son in you.
Tell me, to what extent can the superb spirits of your kind, to
whom God has given the wings of his angels, without always adding
their amiability,--how far can they bend under a family yoke, and
put up with its little miseries? That is a text I have meditated
upon. Ah! though I said to my heart before I came to you, Forward!
Modeste Mignon |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake: The merry bells ring
To welcome the Spring;
The skylark and thrush,
The birds of the bush,
Sing louder around
To the bells' cheerful sound;
While our sports shall be seen
On the echoing green.
Old John, with white hair,
Does laugh away care,
Sitting under the oak,
Songs of Innocence and Experience |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: old question has gone from me. I know you are good; I know you love
everything; I know, I know, I know! I could not have borne it any more,
not any more." He laughed softly. "And all the while I was so miserable
you were looking at me and loving me, and I never knew it. But I know it
now. I feel it," said the boy, and he laughed low; "I feel it!" he laughed.
After a while he began partly to sing, partly to chant the disconnected
verses of hymns, those which spoke his gladness, many times over. The
sheep with their senseless eyes turned to look at him as he sang.
At last he lapsed into quiet. Then as the boy lay there staring at bush
and sand, he saw a vision.
He had crossed the river of Death, and walked on the other bank in the
|
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 Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: as that, in the event of my falling into error, I might be at less
distance from the truth than if, having chosen one of the extremes, it
should turn out to be the other which I ought to have adopted. And I
placed in the class of extremes especially all promises by which somewhat
of our freedom is abridged; not that I disapproved of the laws which, to
provide against the instability of men of feeble resolution, when what is
sought to be accomplished is some good, permit engagements by vows and
contracts binding the parties to persevere in it, or even, for the
security of commerce, sanction similar engagements where the purpose
sought to be realized is indifferent: but because I did not find anything
on earth which was wholly superior to change, and because, for myself in
Reason Discourse |
