| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: colour he is wont to paint with. He regards every one as a blasphemer or
traitor, for under this head they can all be racked, impaled, quartered, and
burnt at pleasure. The good I have accomplished here appears as nothing
seen from a distance, just because it is good. Then he dwells on every
outbreak that is past, recalls every disturbance that is quieted, and brings
before the king such a picture of mutiny, sedition, and audacity, that we
appear to him to he actually devouring one another, when with us the
transient explosion of a rude people has long been forgotten. Thus he
conceives a cordial hatred for the poor people; he views them with horror,
as beasts and monsters; looks around for fire and sword, and imagines that
by such means human beings are subdued.
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prufrock/Other Observations by T. S. Eliot: Morning at the Window
They are rattling breakfast plates in basement kitchens,
And along the trampled edges of the street
I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids
Sprouting despondently at area gates.
The brown waves of fog toss up to me
Twisted faces from the bottom of the street,
And tear from a passer-by with muddy skirts
An aimless smile that hovers in the air
And vanishes along the level of the roofs.
The Boston Evening Transcript
Prufrock/Other Observations |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: passage. The stranger stopped at Gobseck's door and rapped; there was
that in the knock which suggested a man transported with rage. Gobseck
reconnoitred him through the grating; then he opened the door, and in
came a man of thirty-five or so, judged harmless apparently in spite
of his anger. The newcomer, who was quite plainly dressed, bore a
strong resemblance to the late Duc de Richelieu. You must often have
met him, he was the Countess' husband, a man with the aristocratic
figure (permit the expression to pass) peculiar to statesmen of your
faubourg.
" 'Sir,' said this person, addressing himself to Gobseck, who had
quite recovered his tranquillity, 'did my wife go out of this house
Gobseck |
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 A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and so I came close and peered within.
At one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thrones
encrusted with diamonds, sat Than Kosis and his consort,
surrounded by officers and dignitaries of state. Before them
stretched a broad aisle lined on either side with soldiery,
and as I looked there entered this aisle at the far end of
the hall, the head of a procession which advanced to the
foot of the throne.
First there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guard
bearing a huge salver on which reposed, upon a cushion
of scarlet silk, a great golden chain with a collar and
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