| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: "I saw something in it," he answered, "something that seemed
to me very curious."
"Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now?"
Dorian shook his head. "You must not ask me that, Basil.
I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture."
"You will some day, surely?"
"Never."
"Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian.
You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced
my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you.
Ah! you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: slept on the bare grass in sheep camps for two weeks. Well, sir, it
started him getting well, which he done. Close to the ground--that's
where the medicine in the air stays. Try a little hossback riding now.
There's a gentle pony--"
"What've I done to yer?" screamed McGuire. "Did I ever doublecross
yer? Did I ask you to bring me here? Drive me out to your camps if you
wanter; or stick a knife in me and save trouble. Ride! I can't lift my
feet. I couldn't sidestep a jab from a five-year-old kid. That's what
your d--d ranch has done for me. There's nothing to eat, nothing to
see, and nobody to talk to but a lot of Reubens who don't know a
punching bag from a lobster salad."
Heart of the West |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: Earl of Derwentwater, and others. His defence, and the dying
speech which he made at his execution, may be found in the State
Trials. Mr. Vere, supplied by his daughter with an ample income,
continued to reside abroad, engaged deeply in the affair of Law's
bank during the regency of the Duke of Orleans, and was at one
time supposed to be immensely rich. But, on the bursting of that
famous bubble, he was so much chagrined at being again reduced to
a moderate annuity (although he saw thousands of his companions
in misfortune absolutely starving), that vexation of mind brought
on a paralytic stroke, of which he died, after lingering under
its effects a few weeks.
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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: napkin under his arm, meets you as you enter his shop, may be worth
his fifty thousand francs a year; the waiter in a restaurant is
eligible for the Chamber; the man you take for a beggar in the street
carries a hundred thousand francs worth of unset diamonds in his
waistcoat pocket, and didn't steal them either."
The three inseparables (for one day at any rate) now crossed the Place
de la Bourse in a way to intercept a man about forty years of age,
wearing the Legion of honor, who was coming from the boulevard by way
of the rue Neuve-Vivienne.
"Hey!" said Leon, "what are you pondering over, my dear Dubourdieu?
Some fine symbolic composition? My dear cousin, I have the pleasure to
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