| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: And now would all our corn have been spent, and likewise
the strength of the men, except some goddess had taken pity
on me and saved me, Eidothee, daughter of mighty Proteus,
the ancient one of the sea. For most of all I moved her
heart, when she met me wandering alone apart from my
company, who were ever roaming round the isle, fishing with
bent hooks, for hunger was gnawing at their belly. So she
stood by, and spake and uttered her voice saying:
{* The only name for the Nile in Homer. Cf. Wilkinson,
Ancient Egyptians (1878), vol. i. p. 7.}
'"Art thou so very foolish, stranger, and feeble-witted, or
The Odyssey |
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 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: at the moment of his arrest. This scoundrel, who is endowed with
Herculean strength, found means to escape; but three or four days
after his flight the police laid their hands on him once more,
in Paris itself, at the very moment when he was entering one of
those little vehicles which run between the capital and the village
of Montfermeil (Seine-et-Oise). He is said to have profited
by this interval of three or four days of liberty, to withdraw a
considerable sum deposited by him with one of our leading bankers.
This sum has been estimated at six or seven hundred thousand francs.
If the indictment is to be trusted, he has hidden it in some place
known to himself alone, and it has not been possible to lay hands
Les Miserables |
