| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: Pour une fois dans sa vie le prophete a eu raison. Les rois de la
terre ont peur . . . Enfin, rentrons. Vous etes malade. On va dire
e Rome que vous etes fou. Rentrons, je vous dis.
LA VOIX D'IOKANAAN. Qui est celui qui vient d'Edom, qui vient de
Bosra avec sa robe teinte de pourpre; qui eclate dans la beaute de
ses vetements, et qui marche avec une force toute puissante?
Pourquoi vos vetements sont-ils teints d'ecarlate?
HERODIAS. Rentrons. La voix de cet homme m'exaspere. Je ne veux
pas que ma fille danse pendant qu'il crie comme cela. Je ne veux
pas qu'elle danse pendant que vous la regardez comme cela. Enfin,
je ne veux pas qu'elle danse.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going
out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the
earth. One old man, who has been a close observer of Nature, and
seems as thoroughly wise in regard to all her operations as if she
had been put upon the stocks when he was a boy, and he had helped to
lay her keel -- who has come to his growth, and can hardly acquire
more of natural lore if he should live to the age of Methuselah --
told me -- and I was surprised to hear him express wonder at any of
Nature's operations, for I thought that there were no secrets
between them -- that one spring day he took his gun and boat, and
thought that he would have a little sport with the ducks. There was
Walden |
