| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The House of Dust by Conrad Aiken: Silence. . . .the red leaves, one by one,
Fall. Far off, the maenads run.
Silence. Beneath my naked feet
The veins of the red earth swell and beat.
The dead leaves sigh on the troubled air,
Far off the maenads bind their hair. . . .
Hurry, beloved! the day comes soon.
The fire is drawn from the heart of the moon.
* * * * *
The great bell cracks and falls at last.
The moon whirls out. The sky grows still.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: be useful in a due subserviency to nobler purposes,
but become dangerous and destructive when once
they gain the ascendant in the heart: to soothe the
mind to tranquillity by hope, even when that hope
is likely to deceive us, may be sometimes useful;
but to lull our faculties in a lethargy is poor and
despicable.
Vices and errours are differently modified,
according to the state of the minds to which they are
incident; to indulge hope beyond the warrant of
reason, is the failure alike of mean and elevated
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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 Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: needs; and these, even at the risk of a knife thrust, I was
determined to satisfy.
I had not gone two hundred paces along the path, however, before
I heard the tread of a horse behind me, and I had just time to
hide myself before Madame came up and rode by me, sitting her
horse gracefully, and with all the courage of a northern woman.
I watched her pass, and then, assured by her presence that I was
in the right road, I hurried after her. Two minutes walking at
speed brought me to a light wooden bridge spanning a stream. I
crossed this, and, as the wood opened, saw before me first a
wide, pleasant meadow, and beyond this a terrace. On the
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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: will have some fun at your place, for I haven't a home of my own, and
these restaurants, with their broths, and sauces, and wines, would
poison the Devil himself.'
"Something in my face suddenly brought back the usual cold, impassive
expression to his.
" 'You don't understand it,' he said, and sitting down by the hearth,
he put a tin saucepan full of milk on the brazier.--'Will you
breakfast with me?' continued he. 'Perhaps there will be enough here
for two.'
" 'Thanks,' said I, 'I do not breakfast till noon.'
"I had scarcely spoken before hurried footsteps sounded from the
Gobseck |
