| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: Now, as the Inuit say, when the ice once wakes after its
long winter sleep, there is no knowing what may happen,
for solid floe-ice changes shape almost as quickly as a cloud.
The gale was evidently a spring gale sent out of time, and
anything was possible.
Yet the two were happier in their minds than before. If the floe
broke up there would be no more waiting and suffering. Spirits,
goblins, and witch-people were moving about on the racking ice,
and they might find themselves stepping into Sedna's country
side by side with all sorts of wild Things, the flush of
excitement still on them. When they left the hut after the gale,
The Second Jungle Book |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: after the first victory. Alas! that hope was quenched in the blood of
Waterloo. The colonel, slightly wounded, retired to the Loire, and
left Tours before the disbandment of the army.
In the spring of 1816 Charles sold his wife's property out of the
funds to the amount of nearly four hundred thousand francs, intending
to seek his fortune in America, and abandon his own country where
persecution was beginning to lay a heavy hand on the soldiers of
Napoleon. He went to Havre accompanied by Dumay, whose life he had
saved at Waterloo by taking him on the crupper of his saddle in the
hurly-burly of the retreat. Dumay shared the opinions and the
anxieties of his colonel; the poor fellow idolized the two little
Modeste Mignon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: are always overwhelming that we must die before we shall have
brought it to an end. You have not considered, Mr. Spoker, the
situation of man," said the Captain, smiling, and shaking his head.
"I am much more engaged in considering the position of the ship,"
said Mr. Spoker.
"Spoken like a good officer," replied the Captain, laying his hand
on the lieutenant's shoulder.
On deck they found the men had broken into the spirit-room, and
were fast getting drunk.
"My men," said the Captain, "there is no sense in this. The ship
is going down, you will tell me, in ten minutes: well, and what
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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 An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: Yet I have not just gone ahead, ignoring the exact wording in the
original. Instead, with great care, I have, along with my
helpers, gone ahead and have kept literally to the original,
without the slightest deviation, wherever it appeared that a
passage was crucial. For instance, in John 6 Christ says: "Him
has God the Father set his seal upon (versiegelt)." It would be
more clear in German to say "Him has God the Father signified
(gezeiehent)" or even "God the Father means him." But rather than
doing violence to the original, I have done violence to the German
tongue. Ah, translating is not every one's skill as some mad
saints think. A right, devout, honest, sincere, God-fearing
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