| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: from insistence and from familiarity, without asking any
indiscreet questions, or trying to incite him to any wish to
visit them. Their proceedings all bore the hall-mark of natural
refinement and good taste. Their noble and simple manners at
first made no great impression on the painter, but subsequently,
as he recalled all the details of the incident, he was greatly
struck by them.
When they reached the floor beneath that occupied by the
painter's studio, the old lady gently observed, "Adelaide, you
left the door open."
"That was to come to my assistance," said the painter, with a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God
which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
DEU 32:16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with
abominations provoked they him to anger.
DEU 32:17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they
knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
DEU 32:18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast
forgotten God that formed thee.
DEU 32:19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the
provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
DEU 32:20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: Kóstya" worked at the same time.
My father carried them off to his study to have "just one
last look," and by the evening it would be just as bad again, the
whole thing having been rewritten and messed up.
"Sonya my dear, I am very sorry, but I've spoiled all your
work again; I promise I won't do it any more," he would say,
showing her the passages he had inked over with a guilty air.
"We'll send them off to-morrow without fail." But this to-morrow
was often put off day by day for weeks or months together.
"There's just one bit I want to look through again," my
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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 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: 15
The Flight of Werper
After Werper had arranged the dummy in his bed, and
sneaked out into the darkness of the village beneath
the rear wall of his tent, he had gone directly to the
hut in which Jane Clayton was held captive.
Before the doorway squatted a black sentry. Werper
approached him boldly, spoke a few words in his ear,
handed him a package of tobacco, and passed into the
hut. The black grinned and winked as the European
disappeared within the darkness of the interior.
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar |
