The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: I had seen enough. The quick insect-killer had taught me her trade
as had the paralyzer {10} before her: she had shown me that she is
thoroughly versed in the art of the butcher of the Pampas. {11}
The Tarantula is an accomplished desnucador. It remained to me to
confirm the open-air experiment with experiments in the privacy of
my study. I therefore got together a menagerie of these poisonous
Spiders, so as to judge of the virulence of their venom and its
effect according to the part of the body injured by the fangs. A
dozen bottles and test-tubes received the prisoners, whom I
captured by the methods known to the reader. To one inclined to
scream at the sight of a Spider, my study, filled with odious
 The Life of the Spider |
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 Paradise Lost by John Milton: If true, here only, and of delicious taste:
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interposed,
Or palmy hillock; or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose:
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; mean while murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hills, dispersed, or in a lake,
 Paradise Lost |