| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: put it to bed, and to nourish it, and I feel that if I had only the
half of one, I would kiss it, swaddle it, and unharness it, and I
would make it jump and crow all day long, as the other ladies do."
"Were it not that in giving them birth women die, and that for this
you are still too delicate and too close in the bud, you would already
be a mother," replied the seneschal, made giddy with the flow of
words. "But will you buy one ready-made?--that will cost you neither
pain nor labour."
"But," said she, "I want the pain and labour, without which it will
not be ours. I know very well it should be the fruit of my body,
because at church they say that Jesus was the fruit of the Virgin's
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: was shocked that they should reflect so unseemly a
picture of the august tribunal before which, at that very
moment, her case was being tried. Nothing could be in
worse taste than misplaced flippancy; and he answered
somewhat stiffly: "Yes, you have been away a very
long time."
"Oh, centuries and centuries; so long," she said,
"that I'm sure I'm dead and buried, and this dear old
place is heaven;" which, for reasons he could not
define, struck Newland Archer as an even more
disrespectful way of describing New York society.
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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 Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: tumbled from the tree.
Korak stood glaring down upon him when a sudden swish in the
bushes close by attracted his attention. The girl too was
looking down; but she saw nothing but the angry ape scrambling
to his feet. Then, like a bolt from a cross bow, a mass of spotted,
yellow fur shot into view straight for Akut's back. It was Sheeta,
the leopard.
Chapter 10
As the leopard leaped for the great ape Meriem gasped in surprise
and horror--not for the impending fate of the anthropoid, but at
the act of the youth who but for an instant before had angrily
The Son of Tarzan |
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 The Iliad by Homer: did he lie stretched at full length in front of his chariot and
horses, moaning and clutching at the blood-stained dust. As when
a lion springs with a bound upon a herd of cattle and fastens on
a great black bull which dies bellowing in its clutches--even so
did the leader of the Lycian warriors struggle in death as he
fell by the hand of Patroclus. He called on his trusty comrade
and said, "Glaucus, my brother, hero among heroes, put forth all
your strength, fight with might and main, now if ever quit
yourself like a valiant soldier. First go about among the Lycian
captains and bid them fight for Sarpedon; then yourself also do
battle to save my armour from being taken. My name will haunt you
The Iliad |
