| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: in Liverpool; but, instead, he took the boat
train for London.
Emerging at Euston at half-past three
o'clock in the afternoon, Alexander had his
luggage sent to the Savoy and drove at once
to Bedford Square. When Marie met him at
the door, even her strong sense of the
proprieties could not restrain her surprise
and delight. She blushed and smiled and fumbled
his card in her confusion before she ran
upstairs. Alexander paced up and down the
Alexander's Bridge |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: Thogh sche nothing bot honour mente.
Whan that the lord comth hom ayein,
The janglere moste somwhat sein;
So what withoute and what withinne,
This Fievere is evere to beginne,
For where he comth he can noght ende,
Til deth of him have mad an ende. 530
For thogh so be that he ne hiere
Ne se ne wite in no manere
Bot al honour and wommanhiede,
Therof the Jelous takth non hiede,
Confessio Amantis |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: "Do not regret me: my contempt for you is as great as my
admiration.
"LUCIEN."
A little before one in the morning, when the men came to fetch away
the body, they found Jacques Collin kneeling by the bed, the letter on
the floor, dropped, no doubt, as a suicide drops the pistol that has
shot him; but the unhappy man still held Lucien's hand between his
own, and was praying to God.
On seeing this man, the porters paused for a moment, for he looked
like one of those stone images, kneeling to all eternity on a
mediaeval tomb, the work of some stone-carver's genius. The sham
|
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 The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: a servant to use his master so; being, perhaps, for aught I see,
two-and-thirty, a pip out?
Whom would to God I had well knock'd at first,
Then had not Grumio come by the worst.
PETRUCHIO.
A senseless villain! Good Hortensio,
I bade the rascal knock upon your gate,
And could not get him for my heart to do it.
GRUMIO.
Knock at the gate! O heavens! Spake you not these words
plain: 'Sirrah knock me here, rap me here, knock me well, and
The Taming of the Shrew |
