| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: know what a lover is, but you don't yet know what a father can do."
"Father, you frighten me when you look at me in that way. Don't weigh
such different feelings in the same scales. I had a husband before I
knew that my father was living--"
"If your husband was the first to lay kisses on your forehead, I was
the first to drop tears upon it," replied Ferragus. "But don't feel
frightened, Clemence, speak to me frankly. I love you enough to
rejoice in the knowledge that you are happy, though I, your father,
may have little place in your heart, while you fill the whole of
mine."
"Ah! what good such words do me! You make me love you more and more,
 Ferragus |
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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: boat which still waited on the river, and I rejoiced to feel the
sweet air upon my face as one rejoices who awakes from some foul
dream. But I won little sleep that night, nor indeed for some days
to come. For whenever I closed my eyes there rose before me the
vision of that beauteous woman as I saw her last by the murky
torchlight, wrapped in grave clothes and standing in the coffin-
shaped niche, proud and defiant to the end, her child clasped to
her with one arm while the other was outstretched to take the
draught of death. Few have seen such a sight, for the Holy Office
and its helpers do not seek witnesses to their dark deeds, and none
would wish to see it twice. If I have described it ill, it is not
 Montezuma's Daughter |