| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa: His black eyes never left the painted bags on the rocky walls. He
guessed what was in them. He was a very hungry bear. Seeing the
racks of red meat hanging in the yard, he had come to visit the
badger family.
Though he was a stranger and his strong paws and jaws
frightened the small badgers, the father said, "How, how, friend!
Your lips and nose look feverish and hungry. Will you eat with
us?"
"Yes, my friend," said the bear. "I am starved. I saw your
racks of red fresh meat, and knowing your heart is kind, I came
hither. Give me meat to eat, my friend."
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: giggling malignantly.
"I have brought you a sketch," she said timidly in a thin voice,
and her lips quivered. "_Nature morte._"
"Ah--ah! . . . A sketch?"
The artist took the sketch in his hands, and as he examined it w
alked, as it were mechanically, into the other room.
Olga Ivanovna followed him humbly.
"_Nature morte_ . . . first-rate sort," he muttered, falling into
rhyme. "Kurort . . . sport . . . port . . ."
From the studio came the sound of hurried footsteps and the
rustle of a skirt.
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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 Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: "You will kill your mother, mademoiselle," replied Dumay, who left the
room and called his wife.
The poor mother was indeed half-fainting,--struck to the heart by
Modeste's words.
"Good-bye, wife," said the Breton, kissing the American. "Take care of
the mother; I go to save the daughter."
He made his preparations for the journey in a few minutes, and started
for Havre. An hour later he was travelling post to Paris, with the
haste that nothing but passion or speculation can get out of wheels.
Recovering herself under Modeste's tender care, Madame Mignon went up
to her bedroom leaning on the arm of her daughter, to whom she said,
Modeste Mignon |
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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: first step towards which is the proof that the principle of
Archimedes is true of magnetism. He forms magnetic solutions of
various degrees of strength, places them between the poles of his
magnet, and suspends in the solutions various magnetic bodies.
He proves that when the solution is stronger than the body plunged in
it, the body, though magnetic, is repelled; and when an elongated
piece of it is surrounded by the solution, it sets, like a
diamagnetic body, equatorially between the excited poles. The same
body when suspended in a solution of weaker magnetic power than
itself, is attracted as a whole, while an elongated portion of it
sets axially.
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