| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: me.
FIRST SOLDIER.
I perceive, sir, by our general's looks we shall be fain to hang
you.
PAROLLES.
My life, sir, in any case: not that I am afraid to die, but that,
my offences being many, I would repent out the remainder of
nature: let me live, sir, in a dungeon, i' the stocks, or
anywhere, so I may live.
FIRST SOLDIER.
We'll see what may be done, so you confess freely; therefore,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: "We entered the house stealthily. No one was there. We went from room
to room until we reached a little boudoir, and came upon Tullia in
tears. She dried her eyes without affectation, and spoke to du Bruel.
" 'Send a note to the /Rocher de Cancale/,' she said, 'and ask your
guests to dine here.'
"She was dressed as only women of the theatre can dress, in a simply-
made gown of some dainty material, neither too costly nor too common,
graceful and harmonious in outline and coloring; there was nothing
conspicuous about her, nothing exaggerated--a word now dropping out of
use, to be replaced by the word 'artistic,' used by fools as current
coin. In short, Tullia looked like a gentlewoman. At thirty-seven she
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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 Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: whom Fix had met on the quay. The other, who was his master,
held out his passport with the request that the consul would do him
the favour to visa it. The consul took the document and carefully read it,
whilst Fix observed, or rather devoured, the stranger with his eyes
from a corner of the room.
"You are Mr. Phileas Fogg?" said the consul, after reading the passport.
"I am."
"And this man is your servant?"
"He is: a Frenchman, named Passepartout."
"You are from London?"
"Yes."
Around the World in 80 Days |
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 Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: has simply been translated from the simple Latin, but tell me is
that good German? Since when does a German speak like that - being
"full of grace"? One would have to think about a keg "full of"
beer or a purse "full of" money. So I translated it: "You
gracious one". This way a German can at last think about what the
angel meant by his greeting. Yet the papists rant about me
corrupting the angelic greeting - and I still have not used the
most satisfactory German translation. What if I had used the most
satisfactory German and translated the salutation: "God says
hello, Mary dear" (for that is what the angel was intending to say
and what he would have said had he even been German!). If I had,
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