| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: her. The public prosecutor, previously an attorney at Caen, and the
manager of the countess's affairs, tried to inspire her with love by
an appearance of generosity and devotion; a dangerous attempt for her.
He was the most to be feared among her suitors. He alone knew the
exact condition of the property of his former client. His passion was
increased by cupidity, and his cause was backed by enormous power, the
power of life and death throughout the district. This man, still
young, showed so much apparent nobleness and generosity in his
proceedings that Madame de Dey had not yet been able to judge him.
But, disregarding the danger that attends all attempts at subtilty
with Normans, she employed the inventive wit and slyness which Nature
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: [3] The Cossack waggons have their axles smeared with tar instead of
grease.
So spoke the Koschevoi; and no sooner had he finished his speech than
all the Cossacks at once set to work. All the Setch grew sober.
Nowhere was a single drunken man to be found, it was as though there
never had been such a thing among the Cossacks. Some attended to the
tyres of the wheels, others changed the axles of the waggons; some
carried sacks of provisions to them or leaded them with arms; others
again drove up the horses and oxen. On all sides resounded the tramp
of horses' hoofs, test-shots from the guns, the clank of swords, the
lowing of oxen, the screech of rolling waggons, talking, sharp cries
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: Revealed at length to his outlived endeavor
Remote and unapproachable forever;
And at his heart there may have gnawed
Sick memories of a dead faith foiled and flawed
And long dishonored by the living death
Assigned alike by chance
To brutes and hierophants;
And anguish fallen on those he loved around him
May once have dealt the last blow to confound him,
And so have left him as death leaves a child,
Who sees it all too near;
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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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: part in the ceremonial preparations for their own extinction;
and this readiness is encouraged by their nave and
untroubled belief in a speedy transference to "happy
hunting-grounds" beyond the grave. The truth is that
when, as in such cases, the tribal life is very whole and
unbroken--each individual identifying himself completely with
the tribe--the idea of the individual's being dropped out
at death, and left behind by the tribe, hardly arises. The
individual is the tribe, has no other existence. The
tribe goes on, living a life which is eternal, and only
changes its hunting-grounds; and the individual, identified
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
