| 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: voulais dire? Qu'est-ce que c'etait? Ah! je m'en souviens! . . .
Salome! Non, venez plus pres de moi. J'ai peur que vous ne
m'entendiez pas . . . Salome, vous connaissez mes paons blancs, mes
beaux paons blancs, qui se promenent dans le jardin entre les myrtes
et les grands cypres. Leurs becs sont dores, et les grains qu'ils
mangent sont dores aussi, et leurs pieds sont teints de pourpre. La
pluie vient quand ils crient, et quand ils se pavanent la lune se
montre au ciel. Ils vont deux e deux entre les cypres et les myrtes
noirs et chacun a son esclave pour le soigner. Quelquefois ils
volent e travers les arbres, et quelquefois ils couchent sur le
gazon et autour de l'etang. Il n'y a pas dans le monde d'oiseaux si
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: 'And is this a sort of thing which is of the nature of the holy, or of the
nature of the unholy?' I should be angry at his putting such a question,
and should say, 'Peace, man; nothing can be holy if holiness is not holy.'
What would you say? Would you not answer in the same way?
Certainly, he said.
And then after this suppose that he came and asked us, 'What were you
saying just now? Perhaps I may not have heard you rightly, but you seemed
to me to be saying that the parts of virtue were not the same as one
another.' I should reply, 'You certainly heard that said, but not, as you
imagine, by me; for I only asked the question; Protagoras gave the answer.'
And suppose that he turned to you and said, 'Is this true, Protagoras? and
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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 Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne: If I am right, I thought, I must soon find some fossil remains of
primitive life; and then we must yield to evidence. I will look.
I had not gone a hundred paces before incontestable proofs presented
themselves. It could not be otherwise, for in the Silurian age the
seas contained at least fifteen hundred vegetable and animal species.
My feet, which had become accustomed to the indurated lava floor,
suddenly rested upon a dust composed of the _debris_ of plants and
shells. In the walls were distinct impressions of fucoids and
lycopodites.
Professor Liedenbrock could not be mistaken, I thought, and yet he
pushed on, with, I suppose, his eyes resolutely shut.
Journey to the Center of the Earth |
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 Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs: beach, stood two old men, arguing.
Before them stretched the broad Atlantic. At their backs
was the Dark Continent. Close around them loomed the
impenetrable blackness of the jungle.
Savage beasts roared and growled; noises, hideous and
weird, assailed their ears. They had wandered for miles in
search of their camp, but always in the wrong direction. They
were as hopelessly lost as though they suddenly had been
transported to another world.
At such a time, indeed, every fiber of their combined
intellects must have been concentrated upon the vital
Tarzan of the Apes |
