| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: worthies, in St. Paul his eleventh chapter to the Hebrews; and just
as I came to that, 'out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,' arose the cry
of the Spaniards. At which, gentlemen, thinking in myself that I
fought in just so good a cause as they, and, as I hoped, with like
faith, there came upon me so strange an assurance of victory, that
I verily believed in myself that if there had been a ten thousand
of them, I should have taken no hurt. Wherefore," said Jack,
modestly, "there is no credit due to me, for there was no valor in
me whatsoever, but only a certainty of safety; and any coward would
fight if he knew that he were to have all the killing and none of
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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 Recruit by Honore de Balzac: revolutionary tribunal was taciturn, observing attentively every
change in her face; every now and then they addressed her some
embarrassing question, to which, however, the countess answered with
admirable presence of mind. Mothers have such courage!
After Madame de Dey had arranged the card parties, placing some guests
at the boston, and some at the whist tables, she stood talking to a
number of young people with extreme ease and liveliness of manner,
playing her part like a consummate actress. Presently she suggested a
game of loto, and offered to find the box, on the ground that she
alone knew where it was, and then she disappeared.
"I am suffocating, my poor Brigitte," she cried, wiping the tears that
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: to Henry V., who, according to your nonsense, must be his grandson,
when Monseigneur le Dauphin is living. Are you prophesying the
Dauphin's death?"
Bixiou. "What's Gorix, pray?--the name of a cat?"
Colleville [provoked]. "It is the archaeological and lapidarial
abbreviation of the name of a town, my good friend; I looked it out in
Malte-Brun: Goritz, in Latin Gorixia, situated in Bohemia or Hungary,
or it may be Austria--"
Bixiou. "Tyrol, the Basque provinces, or South America. Why don't you
set it all to music and play it on the clarionet?"
Godard [shrugging his shoulders and departing]. "What utter nonsense!"
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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 Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling: The death they cannot see."
"Lie down, lie down, my bold A.B.,
We drift upon her beam;
We dare not ram, for she can run;
And dare ye fire another gun,
And die in the peeling steam?"
It was our war-ship ~Clampherdown~
That carried an armour-belt;
But fifty feet at stern and bow
Verses 1889-1896 |
