| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: knew how happy the poor creature before you is in this little place.
In sacrificing all to my son I forget to think of joys of which I am
and ever must be ignorant. Yes, hope has flown, I now fear everything;
no doubt I should repulse the truest sentiment, the purest and most
veritable love, in memory of the deceptions and the miseries of my
life. It is all horrible, is it not? and yet, what I have told you is
the history of many women."
The last few words were said in a tone of easy pleasantry which
recalled the presence of the woman of the world. D'Arthez was
dumbfounded. In his eyes convicts sent to the galleys for murder, or
aggravated robbery, or for putting a wrong name to checks, were saints
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane: savageness of a man whose life is pestered.
The woman followed him along the sidewalk in somewhat the
manner of a suppliant.
"But, Jimmie," she said, "yehs told me ye'd--"
Jimmie turned upon her fiercely as if resolved to make a last
stand for comfort and peace.
"Say, fer Gawd's sake, Hattie, don' foller me from one end of
deh city teh deh odder. Let up, will yehs! Give me a minute's
res', can't yehs? Yehs makes me tired, allus taggin' me. See?
Ain' yehs got no sense. Do yehs want people teh get onto me?
Go chase yerself, fer Gawd's sake."
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: that turned. For the sake of brevity, we will call Henry Augustus
Ramsay Faizanne, "The Worm," although he really was an exceedingly
pretty boy, without a hair on his face, and with a waist like a
girl's when he came out to the Second "Shikarris" and was made
unhappy in several ways. The "Shikarris" are a high-caste regiment,
and you must be able to do things well--play a banjo or ride more
than a little, or sing, or act--to get on with them.
The Worm did nothing except fall off his pony, and knock chips out
of gate-posts with his trap. Even that became monotonous after a
time. He objected to whist, cut the cloth at billiards, sang out of
tune, kept very much to himself, and wrote to his Mamma and sisters
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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 Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: never one work of art. But the vast mass of mankind are incapable
of doing anything reasonably well, art among the rest. The
worthless artist would not improbably have been a quite incompetent
baker. And the artist, even if he does not amuse the public,
amuses himself; so that there will always be one man the happier
for his vigils. This is the practical side of art: its
inexpugnable fortress for the true practitioner. The direct
returns - the wages of the trade are small, but the indirect - the
wages of the life - are incalculably great. No other business
offers a man his daily bread upon such joyful terms. The soldier
and the explorer have moments of a worthier excitement, but they
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