| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: Lacking a host is but an empty thing
And void of honour; a cup without its wine,
A scabbard without steel to keep it straight,
A flowerless garden widowed of the sun.
Again I crave your pardon, my sweet cousin.
BIANCA. This is no kinsman and no cousin neither.
SIMONE. No kinsman, and no cousin! You amaze me.
Who is it then who with such courtly grace
Deigns to accept our hospitalities?
GUIDO. My name is Guido Bardi.
SIMONE. What! The son
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey: absences from camp, and then with the return of her doubt of him
the recognition of the woman. The small, dark head, the brown
face, the big eyes--Madeline now saw distinctly--belonged to the
Mexican girl Bonita. Stewart had met her there. This was the
secret of his lonely trips, taken ever since he had come to work
for Madeline. This secluded glade was a rendezvous. He had her
hidden there.
Quietly Madeline arose, with a gesture to the dogs, and went back
along the trail toward camp. Succeeding her surprise was a
feeling of sorrow that Stewart's regeneration had not been
complete. Sorrow gave place to insufferable distrust that while
The Light of Western Stars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: than once uttered an involuntary exclamation, extorted by the
convulsive ecstasy too rarely evoked by human passions. He was soon
obliged to leave the theatre. His trembling legs almost refused to
bear him. He was prostrated, weak, like a nervous man who has given
way to a terrible burst of anger. He had had such exquisite pleasure,
or perhaps had suffered so, that his life had flowed away like water
from an overturned vessel. He felt a void within him, a sense of
goneness like the utter lack of strength which discourages a
convalescent just recovering from a serious sickness. Overwhelmed by
inexplicable melancholy, he sat down on the steps of a church. There,
with his back resting against a pillar, he lost himself in a fit of
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in the
river, and two ships from Japan, with goods which they had bought
in China, and were not gone away, having some Japanese merchants on
shore.
The first thing our old Portuguese pilot did for us was to get us
acquainted with three missionary Romish priests who were in the
town, and who had been there some time converting the people to
Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work of it, and
made them but sorry Christians when they had done. One of these
was a Frenchman, whom they called Father Simon; another was a
Portuguese; and a third a Genoese. Father Simon was courteous, and
Robinson Crusoe |
