| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower: Toward thi love. Fader, nay:
Such Cheste yit unto this day
Ne made I nevere, god forbede:
For er I sunge such a crede,
I hadde levere to be lewed;
For thanne were I al beschrewed 480
And worthi to be put abak
With al the sorwe upon my bak
That eny man ordeigne cowthe.
Bot I spak nevere yit be mowthe
That unto Cheste mihte touche,
Confessio Amantis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: to discover him. Often you will fail in the attempt single-handed. If
you have had no opportunity of inquiring, towards the end of the
evening you detect her gazing fixedly at a middle-aged man wearing a
decoration, who bows and goes out. She has ordered her carriage, and
goes.
"You are not the rose, but you have been with the rose, and you go to
bed under the golden canopy of a delicious dream, which will last
perhaps after Sleep, with his heavy finger, has opened the ivory gates
of the temple of dreams.
"The lady, when she is at home, sees no one before four; she is shrewd
enough always to keep you waiting. In her house you will find
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