| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: distress, surprise, or shock him; he is greeted by flowers, scents,
and everything that can please the eye.
I get up in the early dawn, while he is still sleeping, and, without
disturbing him, pass into the dressing-room, where, profiting by my
mother's experience, I remove the traces of sleep by bathing in cold
water. For during sleep the skin, being less active, does not perform
its functions adequately; it becomes warm and covered with a sort of
mist or atmosphere of sticky matter, visible to the eye. From a
sponge-bath a woman issues ten years younger, and this, perhaps, is
the interpretation of the myth of Venus rising from the sea. So the
cold water restores to me the saucy charm of dawn, and, having combed
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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 Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: communicative. The latter talked of their homes, their studies, and of
the war. The conversation grew lively. Prosper Magnan brought a few
tears to the merchant's eyes, when with the frankness and naivete of a
good and tender nature, he talked of what his mother must be doing at
that hour, while he was sitting drinking on the banks of the Rhine.
"I can see her," he said, "reading her prayers before she goes to bed.
She won't forget me; she is certain to say to herself, 'My poor
Prosper; I wonder where he is now!' If she has won a few sous from her
neighbors--your mother, perhaps," he added, nudging Wilhelm's elbow--
"she'll go and put them in the great red earthenware pot, where she is
accumulating a sum sufficient to buy the thirty acres adjoining her
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Macd. I know this is a ioyfull trouble to you:
But yet 'tis one
Macb. The labour we delight in, Physicks paine:
This is the Doore
Macd. Ile make so bold to call, for 'tis my limitted
seruice.
Exit Macduffe.
Lenox. Goes the King hence to day?
Macb. He does: he did appoint so
Lenox. The Night ha's been vnruly:
Where we lay, our Chimneys were blowne downe,
Macbeth |
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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: get back to my home; but I could not for many, many days, because
the Dreadful Quarantines were on. Then at last I did get there--I
slipped up secretly by water. All were gone. I could find no one
who could tell me anything. I could find no one who knew anything.
The house was wide open. There was no sign of life, but that the
cat came and rubbed up against me, and walked round and round me.
The Dreadful Fever was everywhere, and nobody could tell me
anything; and I searched everywhere, always and always alone--there
was no one to help me: everyone was trying to save from the Dreadful
Fever--''
Bessie Bell did not know what all that was about, but she felt so
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