| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: little, to make the intruder sensible of my being in possession
of the premises. She turned slowly round, but, gracious Heaven!
my lord, what a countenance did she display to me! There was no
longer any question what she was, or any thought of her being a
living being. Upon a face which wore the fixed features of a
corpse were imprinted the traces of the vilest and most hideous
passions which had animated her while she lived. The body of
some atrocious criminal seemed to have been given up from the
grave, and the soul restored from the penal fire, in order to
form for a space a union with the ancient accomplice of its
guilt. I started up in bed, and sat upright, supporting myself
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Falk by Joseph Conrad: strongly with Falk's natural unconcern. The big
Alsatian talked loudly with his other customers, go-
ing from one little table to the other, and passing
Falk's place of repose with his eyes fixed straight
ahead. Falk sat there with an untouched glass at
his elbow. He must have known by sight and name
every white man in the room, but he never addressed
a word to anybody. He acknowledged my presence
by a drop of his eyelids, and that was all. Sprawl-
ing there in the chair, he would, now and again,
draw the palms of both his hands down his face,
Falk |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: "Now, tell me this, Athanasi Vassilievitch," said the Prince, "for you
are about the only honest man of my acquaintance. What has inspired in
you such a penchant for defending rascals?"
"This," replied Murazov. "Take any man you like of the persons whom
you thus term rascals. That man none the less remains a human being.
That being so, how can one refuse to defend him when all the time one
knows that half his errors have been committed through ignorance and
stupidity? Each of us commits faults with every step that we take;
each of us entails unhappiness upon others with every breath that we
draw--and that although we may have no evil intention whatever in our
minds. Your Highness himself has, before now, committed an injustice
Dead Souls |
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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: with their tattered canvas looked like dim ships half lost in the
breakers. Cuirasses, forks, clarions, pieces of wood, iron and brass,
corn, straw, and garments were scattered about among the corpses; here
and there a phalarica on the point of extinction burned against a heap
of baggage; in some places the earth was hidden with shields; horses'
carcasses succeeded one another like a series of hillocks; legs,
sandals, arms, and coats of mail were to be seen, with heads held in
their helmets by the chin-pieces and rolling about like balls; heads
of hair were hanging on the thorns; elephants were lying with their
towers in pools of blood, with entrails exposed, and gasping. The foot
trod on slimy things, and there were swamps of mud although no rain
Salammbo |
