| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: bid him go. Or, if thou wilt, hold him here in the steading
and take care of him, and raiment I will send hither, and
all manner of food to eat, that he be not ruinous to thee
and to thy fellows. But thither into the company of the
wooers would I not suffer him to go, for they are exceeding
full of infatuate insolence, lest they mock at him, and
that would be a sore grief to me. And hard it is for one
man, how valiant soever, to achieve aught among a
multitude, for verily they are far the stronger.'
Then the steadfast goodly Odysseus answered him: 'My
friend, since it is indeed my right to answer thee withal,
The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "I don't trust him, old sport."
"How long are you going to wait?"
"All night, if necessary. Anyhow, till they all go to bed."
A new point of view occurred to me. Suppose Tom found out that Daisy had
been driving. He might think he saw a connection in it--he might think
anything. I looked at the house; there were two or three bright windows
down-stairs and the pink glow from Daisy's room on the second floor.
"You wait here," I said. "I'll see if there's any sign of a commotion."
I walked back along the border of the lawn, traversed the gravel softly,
and tiptoed up the veranda steps. The drawing-room curtains were open,
and I saw that the room was empty. Crossing the porch where we had dined
The Great Gatsby |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: But for a youth whose soul was noble and true, this attempt to put
him, as it were, upon his oath, this appeal to truth, had the power to
awaken the three judges hidden in the conscience of every man. Honor,
Truth, and Justice, getting on their feet, cried out in their several
ways energetically.
"Ah, my dear Ernest," said Truth, "you never would have read that
lesson to a rich heiress. No, my boy; you would have gone in hot haste
to Havre to find out if the girl were handsome, and you would have
been very unhappy indeed at her preference for genius; and if you
could have tripped up your friend and supplanted him in her
affections, Mademoiselle d'Este would have been a divinity."
Modeste Mignon |
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 Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: she heard them discussing one of Joseph's pictures.
Joseph, on his side, was sublimely devoted to his mother. He never
left her chamber; answered tenderness by tenderness, cherishing her
upon his heart. The spectacle was never afterwards forgotten by his
friends; and they themselves, a band of brothers in talent and
nobility of nature, were to Joseph and his mother all that they should
have been,--friends who prayed, and truly wept; not saying prayers and
shedding tears, but one with their friend in thought and action.
Joseph, inspired as much by feeling as by genius, divined in the
occasional expression of his mother's face a desire that was deep
hidden in her heart, and he said one day to d'Arthez,--
|
