| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: a fond
girl I seek the place of meeting.
6 The gamester seeks the gambling-house, and wonders, his body
all
afire, Shall I be lucky?
Still do the dice extend his eager longing, staking his gains
against
his adversary.
7 Dice, verily, are armed with goads and driving-hooks, deceiving
and
tormenting, causing grievous woe.
The Rig Veda |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: approve the revival you are proposing to make of them.
Nevertheless, as we should always serve a friend according to his
wishes, not our own, I have done your commission relating to Monsieur
Dorlange, the sculptor, but I must tell you frankly that he showed no
eagerness to enter into your wishes. His first remark, when I
announced myself as coming from you, was that he did not know you; and
this reply, singular as it may seem to you, was made so naturally that
at first I thought there must be some mistake, the result, possibly,
of confusion of name. However, before long your oblivious friend was
willing to agree that he studied with you at the college of Tours and
also that hew as the same Monsieur Dorlange who, in 1831 and under
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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 Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson: inundation. There was great danger of wandering by the way and
perishing in drifts; and Lawless, keeping half a step in front of
his companion, and holding his head forward like a hunting dog upon
the scent, inquired his way of every tree, and studied out their
path as though he were conning a ship among dangers.
About a mile into the forest they came to a place where several
ways met, under a grove of lofty and contorted oaks. Even in the
narrow horizon of the falling snow, it was a spot that could not
fail to be recognised; and Lawless evidently recognised it with
particular delight.
"Now, Master Richard," said he, "an y' are not too proud to be the
|
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 New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: freedoms a man or a sister might have done with me. She would touch
my arm, lay a hand on my shoulder as I sat, adjust the lapel of a
breast-pocket as she talked to me. She says now she loved me always
from the beginning. I doubt if there was a suspicion of that in her
mind those days. I used to find her regarding me with the clearest,
steadiest gaze in the world, exactly like the gaze of some nice
healthy innocent animal in a forest, interested, inquiring,
speculative, but singularly untroubled. . . .
5
Polling day came after a last hoarse and dingy crescendo. The
excitement was not of the sort that makes one forget one is tired
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