| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: turned away; but at that moment I was in no mood for mischief. My
heart was throbbing, and I felt a cold sinking at my stomach; I
was preparing myself to confront a gentleman with epaulettes,
with a naked sword, and with terrible eyes!
But imagine my disappointment! A dapper little foppish gentleman
in white silk trousers, with a white cap on his head, was walking
beside my mother in the garden. With his hands behind him and his
head thrown back, every now and then running on ahead of mother,
he looked quite young. There was so much life and movement in his
whole figure that I could only detect the treachery of age when I
came close up behind and saw beneath his cap a fringe of
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: is of far too much importance to the nation in these portentous
times, to be placed upon a level with one so useless and so poor as
mine. A great cause, my lord, a mighty cause, depends on you. You
are its leader and its champion, its advanced guard and its van.
It is the cause of our altars and our homes, our country and our
faith. Let ME sleep on a chair--the carpet--anywhere. No one will
repine if I take cold or fever. Let John Grueby pass the night
beneath the open sky--no one will repine for HIM. But forty
thousand men of this our island in the wave (exclusive of women and
children) rivet their eyes and thoughts on Lord George Gordon; and
every day, from the rising up of the sun to the going down of the
Barnaby Rudge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: shoe-buckles, breeches, black silk stockings, and a black waistcoat on
which lay his clerical bands, giving him a distinguished air which
detracted nothing from his dignity. This abbe, who became bishop of
Troyes after the Restoration, had long made a study of young people
and fully understood the noble character of the young countess; he
appreciated her at her full value, and had shown her, from the first,
a respectful deference which contributed much to her independence at
Cinq-Cygne, for it led the austere old lady and the kind old gentleman
to yield to the young girl, who by rights should have yielded to them.
For the last six months the abbe had watched Laurence with the
intuition peculiar to priests, the most sagacious of men; and although
|
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 Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Pleased with his daughter's singing, and quite in a jocular humour.
Little could I understand of the words in the song she was singing,
But I constantly heard of Pamina, and then of Tamino,*
(* Characters In Mozart's Zauberflote.)
And I fain would express my opinion; so when she had ended,
I ask'd questions respecting the text, and who were the persons.
All were silent and smiled; but presently answer'd the father
'Did you e'er happen, my friend, to hear of Eve or of Adam?'
Then no longer restrain'd they themselves, the girls burst out laughing,
All the boys laugh'd loudly, the old man's sides appear'd splitting.
In my confusion I let my hat fall down, and the titt'ring
|
