| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson: Fell on, and checked, and made him flush, and bow
Lowly, to kiss his hand, who answered him,
'Son, the good mother let me know thee here,
And sent her wish that I would yield thee thine.
Make thee my knight? my knights are sworn to vows
Of utter hardihood, utter gentleness,
And, loving, utter faithfulness in love,
And uttermost obedience to the King.'
Then Gareth, lightly springing from his knees,
'My King, for hardihood I can promise thee.
For uttermost obedience make demand
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: if we are to proceed, I beg that you will restrain your feelings
until the deputy-suppleant has concluded his discourse."
"I shall endeavour to obey, M. le President, leaving provocation to
the gentlemen of the Right. If the few words I have used so far
have been provocative, I regret it. But it was necessary that I
should refer to the distinguished deputy whose place I come so
unworthily to fill, and it was unavoidable that I should refer to
the event which has procured us this sad necessity. The deputy
Lagron was a man of singular nobility of mind, a selfless, dutiful,
zealous man, inflamed by the high purpose of doing his duty by his
electors and by this Assembly. He possessed what his opponents
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: in my convalescence.
I avoided explanation and maintained a continual silence concerning
the wretch I had created. I had a persuasion that I should be
supposed mad, and this in itself would forever have chained my tongue.
But, besides, I could not bring myself to disclose a secret which
would fill my hearer with consternation and make fear and unnatural
horror the inmates of his breast. I checked, therefore, my impatient
thirst for sympathy and was silent when I would have given the world
to have confided the fatal secret. Yet, still, words like those
I have recorded would burst uncontrollably from me. I could offer
no explanation of them, but their truth in part relieved the burden
Frankenstein |
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 An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: plates, three knives, and a round loaf. A small fire burned in the
grate. A few bits of wood in a heap in a corner bore further witness
to the poverty of the recluses. You had only to look at the coating of
paint on the walls to discover the bad condition of the roof, and the
ceiling was a perfect network of brown stains made by rain-water. A
relic, saved no doubt from the wreck of the Abbaye de Chelles, stood
like an ornament on the chimney-piece. Three chairs, two boxes, and a
rickety chest of drawers completed the list of the furniture, but a
door beside the fireplace suggested an inner room beyond.
The brief inventory was soon made by the personage introduced into
their midst under such terrible auspices. It was with a compassionate
|
