| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: next his skin to keep out darts or arrows; it was this that
served him in the best stead, nevertheless the arrow went through
it and grazed the top of the skin, so that blood began flowing
from the wound.
As when some woman of Meonia or Caria strains purple dye on to a
piece of ivory that is to be the cheek-piece of a horse, and is
to be laid up in a treasure house--many a knight is fain to bear
it, but the king keeps it as an ornament of which both horse and
driver may be proud--even so, O Menelaus, were your shapely
thighs and your legs down to your fair ancles stained with blood.
When King Agamemnon saw the blood flowing from the wound he was
The Iliad |
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: precepts may bind, there will always be the Clarissas and the Julies,
whose souls like flowing cups o'erlap the brim under some spiritual
pressure. Modeste was glorious in the savage energy with which she
repressed her exuberant youthful happiness and remained demurely
quiet. Let us say frankly that the memory of her sister was more
potent upon her than any social conventions; her will was iron in the
resolve to bring no grief upon her father and her mother. But what
tumultuous heavings were within her breast! no wonder that a mother
guessed them.
On the following day Modeste and Madame Dumay took Madame Mignon about
mid-day to a seat in the sun among the flowers. The blind woman turned
Modeste Mignon |
