| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy: his depression was the discovery that no "Mrs Clare"
had ever been heard of by the cottagers or by the
farmer himself, though Tess was remembered well enough
by her Christian name. His name she had obviously
never used during their separation, and her dignified
sense of their total severance was shown not much less
by this abstention than by the hardships she had chosen
to undergo (of which he now learnt for the first time)
rather than apply to his father for more funds.
From this place they told him Tess Durbeyfield had
gone, without due notice, to the home of her parents on
Tess of the d'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: Inez was insane. They based their opinion upon the fact that she
showed so little apperceptive ability, so little judgment in
relating the results of her continual lying to its necessary
effect upon her career.) It requires too much space to go over
the complicated details of her many stories, but some of her
expressions and behavior are worth noting.
We always found Inez most friendly, sometimes voluble, and she
ever dealt with us in a lady-like manner. Again we noted that
many a society woman would give much for her well modulated voice
and powers of verbal expression. Without any suggestion of
melodrama she would rise to strong passages in giving vent to her
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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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: better alike for strength and beauty, and better adapted to carry the
legs well asunder, so that they will not overlap and interfere with
one another. Again, the neck should not be set on dropping forward
from the chest, like a boar's, but, like that of a game-cock rather,
it should shoot upwards to the crest, and be slack[17] along the
curvature; whilst the head should be bony and the jawbone small. In
this way the neck will be well in front of the rider, and the eye will
command what lies before the horse's feet. A horse, moreover, of this
build, however spirited, will be least capable of overmastering the
rider,[18] since it is not by arching but by stretching out his neck
and head that a horse endeavours to assert his power.[19]
On Horsemanship |
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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: Mollusc tribe have a monopoly of the scientific curve. In the
stagnant waters of our grassy ditches, the flat shells, the humble
Planorbes, sometimes no bigger than a duckweed, vie with the
Ammonite and the Nautilus in matters of higher geometry. At least
one of them, Planorbis vortex, for example, is a marvel of
logarithmic whorls.
In the long-shaped shells, the structure becomes more complex,
though remaining subject to the same fundamental laws. I have
before my eyes some species of the genus Terebra, from New
Caledonia. They are extremely tapering cones, attaining almost
nine inches in length. Their surface is smooth and quite plain,
The Life of the Spider |
