| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian corn, and the orchards
burdened with ruddy fruit, which surrounded the warm tenement of
Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit
these domains, and his imagination expanded with the idea, how
they might be readily turned into cash, and the money invested in
immense tracts of wild land, and shingle palaces in the
wilderness. Nay, his busy fancy already realized his hopes, and
presented to him the blooming Katrina, with a whole family of
children, mounted on the top of a wagon loaded with household
trumpery, with pots and kettles dangling beneath; and he beheld
himself bestriding a pacing mare, with a colt at her heels,
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Works of Samuel Johnson by Samuel Johnson: other panegyrick envy may withhold; but no human
power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums.
Infamy may hiss, or contempt may growl,
the hirelings of the great may follow fortune, and
the votaries of truth may attend on virtue; but
his pleasures still remain the same; he can always
listen with rapture to himself, and leave those who
dare not repose upon their own attestation, to
be elated or depressed by chance, and toil on in
the hopeless task of fixing caprice, and propitiating
malice.
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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 The Iliad by Homer: of Troy. Vouchsafe me then this prayer--suffer us to escape at
any rate with our lives, and let not the Achaeans be so utterly
vanquished by the Trojans."
Thus did he pray, and father Jove pitying his tears vouchsafed
him that his people should live, not die; forthwith he sent them
an eagle, most unfailingly portentous of all birds, with a young
fawn in its talons; the eagle dropped the fawn by the altar on
which the Achaeans sacrificed to Jove the lord of omens; when,
therefore, the people saw that the bird had come from Jove, they
sprang more fiercely upon the Trojans and fought more boldly.
There was no man of all the many Danaans who could then boast
The Iliad |
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 The Purse by Honore de Balzac: fragrance of virtue. In the course of the conversation he seized
an opportunity of discussing portraits in general, to give
himself a pretext for examining the frightful pastel, of which
the color had flown, and the chalk in many places fallen away.
"You are attached to that picture for the sake of the likeness,
no doubt, mesdames, for the drawing is dreadful?" he said,
looking at Adelaide.
"It was done at Calcutta, in great haste," replied the mother in
an agitated voice.
She gazed at the formless sketch with the deep absorption which
memories of happiness produce when they are roused and fall on
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