| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: punishment, but with others of a slow nature which would be in
effect civil death for ever; and the very instant he ceased speaking
we all felt the pores of our faces opening, and pricking us, as if
with the points of needles. We at once put our hands up to our faces
and found ourselves in the state you now see."
Here the Distressed One and the other duennas raised the veils
with which they were covered, and disclosed countenances all bristling
with beards, some red, some black, some white, and some grizzled, at
which spectacle the duke and duchess made a show of being filled
with wonder. Don Quixote and Sancho were overwhelmed with amazement,
and the bystanders lost in astonishment, while the Trifaldi went on to
Don Quixote |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin: smooth. A small fragment examined under the microscope
appeared, from the number of minute entangled air or perhaps
steam bubbles, like an assay fused before the blowpipe.
The sand is entirely, or in greater part, siliceous; but some
points are of a black colour, and from their glossy surface
possess a metallic lustre. The thickness of the wall of the
tube varies from a thirtieth to a twentieth of an inch, and
occasionally even equals a tenth. On the outside the grains
of sand are rounded, and have a slightly glazed appearance:
I could not distinguish any signs of crystallization. In a
similar manner to that described in the Geological Transactions,
The Voyage of the Beagle |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: What, no attendance, no regard, no duty?
Where is the foolish knave I sent before? TAMING OF THE SHREW.
There is no period at which men look worse in the eyes of each
other, or feel more uncomfortable, than when the first dawn of
daylight finds them watchers. Even a beauty of the first order,
after the vigils of a ball are interrupted by the dawn, would do
wisely to withdraw herself from the gaze of her fondest and most
partial admirers. Such was the pale, inauspicious, and
ungrateful light which began to beam upon those who kept watch
all night in the hall at Sayes Court, and which mingled its cold,
pale, blue diffusion with the red, yellow, and smoky beams of
Kenilworth |
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 Pericles by William Shakespeare: BAWD.
Your honour knows what 'tis to say well enough.
LYSIMACHUS.
Well, call forth, call forth.
BOULT.
For flesh and blood, sir, white and red, you shall see a rose;
and she were a rose indeed, if she had but --
LYSIMACHUS.
What, prithee?
BOULT.
O, sir, I can be modest.
|
