| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: our men are suffering so in the army. We can't do much, but we can
make our little sacrifices, and ought to do it gladly. But I am
afraid I don't." And Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully
of all the pretty things she wanted.
"But I don't think the little we should spend would do any
good. We've each got a dollar, and the army wouldn't be much helped
by our giving that. I agree not to expect anything from Mother or
you, but I do want to buy UNDINE AND SINTRAM for myself. I've
wanted it so long," said Jo, who was a bookworm.
"I planned to spend mine in new music," said Beth, with a
little sigh, which no one heard but the hearth brush and kettle
Little Women |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: one, Is it I? and another said, Is it I?
MAR 14:20 And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve,
that dippeth with me in the dish.
MAR 14:21 The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe
to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that
man if he had never been born.
MAR 14:22 And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake
it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.
MAR 14:23 And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it
to them: and they all drank of it.
MAR 14:24 And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament,
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: occult sense of his own. Try as I might, I could get no
nearer the principle of their division. What was essential to
them, seemed to me trivial or untrue. We could come to no
compromise as to what was, or what was not, important in the
life of man. Turn as we pleased, we all stood back to back in
a big ring, and saw another quarter of the heavens, with
different mountain-tops along the sky-line and different
constellations overhead. We had each of us some whimsy in the
brain, which we believed more than anything else, and which
discoloured all experience to its own shade. How would you
have people agree, when one is deaf and the other blind? Now
|
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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: assert your ignorance of a fact recorded on the very face of the
document itself. You would be compelled at once to produce the
diamonds deposited with you, according to the weight, value, and
cutting therein described.'
"Gobseck cut me short with a nod, and turned towards the guilty
couple.
" 'He is right!' he said. 'That puts the whole thing in a different
light. Eighty thousand francs down, and you leave the diamonds with
me,' he added, in the husky, flute-like voice. 'In the way of
property, possession is as good as a title.'
" 'But----' objected the young man.
Gobseck |
