| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: your power over him, confine his madness to a moral sphere just as we
lock maniacs in a cell."
"Dear child," she said, smiling bitterly, "a woman without a heart
might do it. But I am a mother; I should make a poor jailer. Yes, I
can suffer, but I cannot make others suffer. Never!" she said, "never!
not even to obtain some great and honorable result. Besides, I should
have to lie in my heart, disguise my voice, lower my head, degrade my
gesture--do not ask of me such falsehoods. I can stand between
Monsieur de Mortsauf and his children, I willingly receive his blows
that they may not fall on others; I can do all that, and will do it to
conciliate conflicting interests, but I can do no more."
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: "And why, if you please?" La Tour d'Azyr's face had flamed scarlet
before that sneer.
"Oh," Andre-Louis raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips, a man
considering. He delivered himself slowly. "Because, monsieur, you
prefer the easy victim - the Lagrons and Vilmorins of this world,
mere sheep for your butchering. That is why."
And then the Marquis struck him.
Andre-Louis stepped back. His eyes gleamed a moment; the next they
were smiling up into the face of his tall enemy.
"No better than the others, after all! Well, well! Remark, I beg
you, how history repeats itself - with certain differences. Because
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: are subject, by the vices or infirmities of those who govern, as
well as by the licentiousness of those who are to obey. For
instance: whereas all writers and reasoners have agreed, that
there is a strict universal resemblance between the natural and
the political body; can there be any thing more evident, than
that the health of both must be preserved, and the diseases
cured, by the same prescriptions? It is allowed, that senates
and great councils are often troubled with redundant, ebullient,
and other peccant humours; with many diseases of the head, and
more of the heart; with strong convulsions, with grievous
contractions of the nerves and sinews in both hands, but
Gulliver's Travels |
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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: is good to me when I have done what he wanted. But you see, Mr.
Muller, I am like a prisoner here and that makes me angry. I made
Gyuri let me out nights sometimes."
"You mean he let you out alone, all alone?"
"Yes, of course, for I threatened to tell the doctor everything if
he didn't."
"You wouldn't have dared do that."
"No, that's true," smiled Varna slyly. "But Gyuri was afraid I
might do it, for he isn't always strong enough to frighten me with
his eyes. Those were the hours when I could make him afraid - I
liked those hours - "
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