| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: like to run after thee.
All things long for thee, since thou hast remained alone for seven days--
step forth out of thy cave! All things want to be thy physicians!
Did perhaps a new knowledge come to thee, a bitter, grievous knowledge?
Like leavened dough layest thou, thy soul arose and swelled beyond all its
bounds.--"
--O mine animals, answered Zarathustra, talk on thus and let me listen! It
refresheth me so to hear your talk: where there is talk, there is the
world as a garden unto me.
How charming it is that there are words and tones; are not words and tones
rainbows and seeming bridges 'twixt the eternally separated?
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: His costume consisted of a huge frock-coat, something between a
paletot and a dressing-gown, between which an immense waistcoat of
iron-gray cloth, fastened from the throat to the pit of the stomach
with two rows of buttons, hussar fashion, formed a sort of buckler.
The trousers, though October was nearing its close, were made of black
lasting, and gave testimony to long service by the projection of a
darn on the otherwise polished surface covering the knees, the polish
being produced by the rubbing of the hands upon those parts. But, in
broad daylight, the feature of the old savant's appearance which
struck the eye most vividly was a pair of Patagonian feet, imprisoned
in slippers of beaver cloth, the which, moulded upon the mountainous
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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 The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart: But his own men stood in their trenches, or what passed for trenches, or
lay on their hours of relief in such wretched quarters as could be found,
still with no prospect of action. No great guns, drawn by heavy
tractors, came down the roads toward the trenches by the sea. Steady
bombarding, incessant sniping and no movement on either side - that was
the Belgian Front during the first year of the war. Inaction, with that
eating anxiety as to what was going on in the occupied territory, was
the portion of the heroic small army that stretched from Nieuport to
Dixmude.
And Henri's nerves were not good. He was unhappy - that always - and he
was not yet quite recovered from his wounds. There was on his mind, too,
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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 All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: [Exeunt BERTRAM, Lords, &c.]
FIRST SOLDIER.
You are undone, captain: all but your scarf; that has a knot on't
yet.
PAROLLES.
Who cannot be crushed with a plot?
FIRST SOLDIER.
If you could find out a country where but women were that had
received so much shame, you might begin an impudent nation. Fare
ye well, sir; I am for France too: we shall speak of you there.
[Exit.]
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