| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: The light of that day went the way of its brethren, and with
the later watches of the frosty darkness rose the strange star
again. And it was now so bright that the waxing moon seemed but a
pale yellow ghost of itself, hanging huge in the sunset. In a
South African City a great man had married, and the streets were
alight to welcome his return with his bride. "Even the skies have
illuminated," said the flatterer. Under Capricorn, two negro
lovers, daring the wild beasts and evil spirits, for love of one
another, crouched together in a cane brake where the fire-flies
hovered. "That is our star," they whispered, and felt strangely
comforted by the sweet brilliance of its light.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: disappearance of the little Prince Richard, De Mont-
fort devoted much of his time and private fortune to
prosecuting a search through all the world for the little
fellow, of whom he was inordinately fond. This self-
sacrificing interest on his part won over the King and
Queen for many years, but of late his unremitting hos-
tility to their continued extravagant waste of the na-
tional resources has again hardened them toward him."
The old man, growing uneasy at the turn the con-
versation threatened, sent the youth from the room on
some pretext, and himself left to prepare supper.
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: smarten himself up.
That evening, at seven, he arrived in a hackney cab at Madame de la
Baudraye's door, and begged the porter to send a note up to the
Countess--a few lines, as follows:
"Would Madame la Comtesse do Monsieur Lousteau the favor of receiving
him for a moment, and at once?"
This note was sealed with a seal which as lovers they had both used.
Madame de la Baudraye had had the word /Parce que/ engraved on a
genuine Oriental carnelian--a potent word--a woman's word--the word
that accounts for everything, even for the Creation.
The Countess had just finished dressing to go to the Opera; Friday was
The Muse of the Department |
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 Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: and folly! 'Had an evil genius cast a spell at my birth; or a demon
stalked out of chaos, to perplex my understanding, and enchain my
will, with delusive prejudices?'
"I pursued this train of thinking; it led me out of myself,
to expatiate on the misery peculiar to my sex. 'Are not,' I thought,
'the despots for ever stigmatized, who, in the wantonness of power,
commanded even the most atrocious criminals to be chained to dead
bodies? though surely those laws are much more inhuman, which forge
adamantine fetters to bind minds together, that never can mingle
in social communion! What indeed can equal the wretchedness of that
state, in which there is no alternative, but to extinguish the
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