| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: not talk; it is always talking. That sounds like a cheap fling
at the poor creature, a slur; but I do not mean it so. I have never
heard the human voice before, and any new and strange sound
intruding itself here upon the solemn hush of these dreaming
solitudes offends my ear and seems a false note. And this new
sound is so close to me; it is right at my shoulder, right at my
ear, first on one side and then on the other, and I am used only
to sounds that are more or less distant from me.
Friday
The naming goes recklessly on, in spite of anything I can do. I
had a very good name for the estate, and it was musical and pretty--
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: minor. This, indeed, is the triumph of hell! Roll on, harmony, and
wrap us in a thousand folds! Roll on, bewitch us! The powers of
darkness have clutched their prey; they hold him while they dance. The
great genius, born to conquer and to reign, is lost! The devils
rejoice, misery stifles genius, passion will wreck the knight!"
And here Gambara improvised a /fantasia/ of his own on the
bacchanalian chorus, with ingenious variations, and humming the air in
a melancholy drone as if to express the secret sufferings he had
known.
"Do you hear the heavenly lamentations of neglected love?" he said.
"Isabella calls to Robert above the grand chorus of knights riding
Gambara |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: if his place is among the poets, he is the leader of all the
lovers. He saw that love was the first secret of the world for
which the wise men had been looking, and that it was only through
love that one could approach either the heart of the leper or the
feet of God.
And above all, Christ is the most supreme of individualists.
Humility, like the artistic, acceptance of all experiences, is
merely a mode of manifestation. It is man's soul that Christ is
always looking for. He calls it 'God's Kingdom,' and finds it in
every one. He compares it to little things, to a tiny seed, to a
handful of leaven, to a pearl. That is because one realises one's
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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 Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: "Of course, of course; I ask no other fee than to be quoted by you,
messieurs-- Monsieur needs a picturesque hat, something in the style
of Monsieur Lousteau's," he continued, looking at Gazonal with the eye
of a master. "I will consider it."
"You give yourself a great deal of trouble," said Gazonal.
"Oh! for a few persons only; for those who know how to appreciate the
value of the pains I bestow upon them. Now, take the aristocracy--
there is but one man there who has truly comprehended the Hat; and
that is the Prince de Bethune. How is it that men do not consider, as
women do, that the hat is the first thing that strikes the eye? And
why have they never thought of changing the present system, which is,
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