| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: held out to them with a naive motion.
"The old rogue is making game of us," said Poussin, coming close to
the pretended picture. "I can see nothing here but a mass of confused
color, crossed by a multitude of eccentric lines, making a sort of
painted wall."
"We are mistaken. See!" returned Porbus.
Coming nearer, they perceived in a corner of the canvas the point of a
naked foot, which came forth from the chaos of colors, tones, shadows
hazy and undefined, misty and without form,--an enchanting foot, a
living foot. They stood lost in admiration before this glorious
fragment breaking forth from the incredible, slow, progressive
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: with ease, and play into each other, that is what we call a stiff bit.
Whatever the kind of bit may be, the rider must carry out precisely
the same rules in using it, as follows, if he wishes to turn out a
horse with the qualities described. The horse's mouth is not to be
pulled back too harshly so as to make him toss his head aside, nor yet
so gently that he will not feel the pressure. But the instant he
raises his neck in answer to the pull, give him the bit at once; and
so throughout, as we never cease repeating, at every response to your
wishes, whenever and wherever the animal performs his service well,[9]
reward and humour him. Thus, when the rider perceives that the horse
takes a pleasure in the high arching and supple play of his neck, let
On Horsemanship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: after seeing him to the door.
Mademoiselle de Fontaine, who had been in the secret of this call, had
dressed with some care to attract the young man's eye; but she had the
little disappointment of finding that he did not bestow on her so much
attention as she thought she deserved. The family were a good deal
surprised at the silence into which she had retired. Emilie generally
displayed all her arts for the benefit of newcomers, her witty
prattle, and the inexhaustible eloquence of her eyes and attitudes.
Whether it was that the young man's pleasing voice and attractive
manners had charmed her, that she was seriously in love, and that this
feeling had worked a change in her, her demeanor had lost all its
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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 Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: November 22, 1993, on the day of the 30th anniversary
of his assassination.
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863
on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA
#STARTMARK#
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth
upon this continent a new nation: conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war. . .testing whether
that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
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