| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Michael Strogoff by Jules Verne: Ispahan. Tiflis armor, caravan teas. European bronzes,
Swiss clocks, velvets and silks from Lyons, English cottons,
harness, fruits, vegetables, minerals from the Ural, mala-
chite, lapis-lazuli, spices, perfumes, medicinal herbs, wood,
tar, rope, horn, pumpkins, water-melons, etc -- all the pro-
ducts of India, China, Persia, from the shores of the
Caspian and the Black Sea, from America and Europe, were
united at this corner of the globe.
It is scarcely possible truly to portray the moving mass
of human beings surging here and there, the excitement,
the confusion, the hubbub; demonstrative as were the na-
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: pity the poor noisy little animal, but there is nothing I can do
to make it happy. If I could tame it--but that is out of the
question; the more I try, the worse I seem to make it. It grieves
me to the heart to see it in its little storms of sorrow and
passion. I wanted to let it go, but she wouldn't hear of it. That
seemed cruel and not like her; and yet she may be right. It might
be lonelier than ever; for since I cannot find another one, how
could it?
Five Months Later
It is not a kangaroo. No, for it supports itself by holding to
her finger, and thus goes a few steps on its hind legs, and then
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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 The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: mid-height and, at the least alarm, goes down again to the branch
gallery, where it is invisible.
Leon Dufour's appears to me a better method if it were only
practicable in the conditions wherein I find myself. To drive a
knife quickly into the ground, across the burrow, so as to cut off
the Tarantula's retreat when she is attracted by the spikelet and
standing on the upper floor, would be a manoeuvre certain of
success, if the soil were favourable. Unfortunately, this is not
so in my case: you might as well try to dig a knife into a block
of tufa.
Other stratagems become necessary. Here are two which were
The Life of the Spider |
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 The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: me; I should be lowered in my own eyes. I had not enough lofty social
virtue to remain with a man whom I did not love. I have snapped the
bonds of marriage in spite of the law; it was wrong, it was a crime,
it was anything you like, but for me the bonds meant death. I meant to
live. Perhaps if I had been a mother I could have endured the torture
of a forced marriage of suitability. At eighteen we scarcely know what
is done with us, poor girls that we are! I have broken the laws of the
world, and the world has punished me; we both did rightly. I sought
happiness. Is it not a law of our nature to seek for happiness? I was
young, I was beautiful . . . I thought that I had found a nature as
loving, as apparently passionate. I was loved indeed; for a little
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