| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The shroud to restore fain had sought;
When the end,--now can nothing to save him avail,--
In a tooth formed of iron is caught.
With vanishing lustre the moon's race is run,
When the bell thunders loudly a powerful One,
And the skeleton fails, crush'd to atoms.
1813.
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THE PUPIL IN MAGIC.
I AM now,--what joy to hear it!--
Of the old magician rid;
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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 Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: have been able, had he been free, or if he had walked, to pluck a twig
of laurel, to observe the nature of the soil which clung to his boots;
whereas, transported, so to speak, ethereally into an inaccessible
mansion, his good fortune must remain what it had been hitherto, a
dream. But it is man's despair that all his work, whether for good or
evil, is imperfect. All his labors, physical or intellectual, are
sealed with the mark of destruction. There had been a gentle rain, the
earth was moist. At night-time certain vegetable perfumes are far
stronger than during the day; Henri could smell, therefore, the scent
of the mignonette which lined the avenue along which he was conveyed.
This indication was enough to light him in the researches which he
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: The greatest man in England but the king.
[Exeunt.]
SCENE III. A Hall of Justice.
[Sound trumpets. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, GLOSTER,
YORK, SUFFOLK, and SALISBURY; the DUCHESS OF GLOSTER,
MARGERY JOURDAIN, SOUTHWELL, HUME, and BOLINGBROKE,
under guard.]
KING.
Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloster's wife.
In sight of God and us, your guilt is great;
Receive the sentence of the law for sins
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