| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: bread; he seemed alive to all the joys of youth, his smile was quite
affectionate and childlike.
When, at five o'clock, this happy meal was ended with a few glasses of
champagne, Roger was the first to propose that they should join the
village ball under the chestnuts, where he and Caroline danced
together. Their hands met with sympathetic pressure, their hearts beat
with the same hopes; and under the blue sky and the slanting, rosy
beams of sunset, their eyes sparkled with fires which, to them, made
the glory of the heavens pale. How strange is the power of an idea, of
a desire! To these two nothing seemed impossible. In such magic
moments, when enjoyment sheds its reflections on the future, the soul
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: feared eternal punishment, a fear which led him to make so many
sacrifices to the Church; the present, namely his life itself, for the
saving of which he blindly obeyed Coyctier. This king, who crushed
down all about him, was himself crushed down by remorse, and by
disease in the midst of the great poem of defiant monarchy in which
all power was concentrated. It was once more the gigantic and ever
magnificent combat of Man in the highest manifestation of his forces
tilting against Nature.
While awaiting his dinner, a repast which was taken in those days
between eleven o'clock and mid-day, Louis XI., returning from a short
promenade, sat down in a huge tapestried chair near the fireplace in
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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 Camille by Alexandre Dumas: emotion which I had witnessed before, and that every time his
thoughts or speech travelled back to that mournful subject
emotion would still, for a long time to come, prove stronger than
his will. I contented myself with a nod of the head.
"He has looked after it well?" continued Armand. Two big tears
rolled down the cheeks of the sick man, and he turned away his
head to hide them from me. I pretended not to see them, and tried
to change the conversation. "You have been away three weeks," I
said.
Armand passed his hand across his eyes and replied, "Exactly
three weeks."
Camille |
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 Aesop's Fables by Aesop: One day the Countrymen noticed that the Mountains were in
labour; smoke came out of their summits, the earth was quaking at
their feet, trees were crashing, and huge rocks were tumbling.
They felt sure that something horrible was going to happen. They
all gathered together in one place to see what terrible thing this
could be. They waited and they waited, but nothing came. At last
there was a still more violent earthquake, and a huge gap appeared
in the side of the Mountains. They all fell down upon their knees
and waited. At last, and at last, a teeny, tiny mouse poked its
little head and bristles out of the gap and came running down
towards them, and ever after they used to say:
Aesop's Fables |
