| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: not so much as touched him with its bat's-wing. The terrible emotion
of that fear then came to its reaction; joy almost stifled her; for
there is no human being who is not more able to endure grief than to
bear extreme felicity.
"Daniel, they have calumniated me, and you have avenged me!" she
cried, rising, and opening her arms to him.
In the profound amazement caused by these words, the roots of which
were utterly unknown to him, Daniel allowed his hand to be taken
between her beautiful hands, as the princess kissed him sacredly on
the forehead.
"But," he said, "how could you know--"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: him to recognise the male exterminating principle as supreme. And then
he secretly charged Rabbet with the misfortune of his life. Was it not
for her that the grand-pontiff had once advanced amid the tumult of
cymbals, and with a patera of boiling water taken from him his future
virility? And he followed with a melancholy gaze the men who were
disappearing with the priestesses in the depths of the turpentine
trees.
His days were spent in inspecting the censers, the gold vases, the
tongs, the rakes for the ashes of the altar, and all the robes of the
statues down to the bronze bodkin that served to curl the hair of an
old Tanith in the third aedicule near the emerald vine. At the same
Salammbo |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: asked a Green Linnet, who was sitting in a willow-tree hard by, and
had overheard the conversation.
"Yes, that is just what I want to know," said the Duck; and she
swam away to the end of the pond, and stood upon her head, in order
to give her children a good example.
"What a silly question!" cried the Water-rat. "I should expect my
devoted friend to be devoted to me, of course."
"And what would you do in return?" said the little bird, swinging
upon a silver spray, and flapping his tiny wings.
"I don't understand you," answered the Water-rat.
"Let me tell you a story on the subject," said the Linnet.
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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 Captain Stormfield by Mark Twain: We long to hear thy voice,
To see thee face to face.
It was noble music, but the uneducated chipped in and spoilt it,
just as the congregations used to do on earth.
The head of the procession began to pass, now, and it was a
wonderful sight. It swept along, thick and solid, five hundred
thousand angels abreast, and every angel carrying a torch and
singing - the whirring thunder of the wings made a body's head
ache. You could follow the line of the procession back, and
slanting upward into the sky, far away in a glittering snaky rope,
till it was only a faint streak in the distance. The rush went on
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