| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: IV
"Farewell to glory, farewell to the future, to the life I had
dreamed of! Now, my well-beloved, my glory is that I am yours, and
worthy of you; my future lies entirely in the hope of seeing you;
and is not my life summed up in sitting at your feet, in lying
under your eyes, in drawing deep breaths in the heaven you have
created for me? All my powers, all my thoughts must be yours,
since you could speak those thrilling words, 'Your sufferings must
be mine!' Should I not be stealing some joys from love, some
moments from happiness, some experiences from your divine spirit,
if I gave my hours to study--ideas to the world and poems to the
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Of The Nature of Things by Lucretius: Disjoined from the body, and that mind enjoy
Delightsome feeling, far from care and fear!
Therefore we see that our corporeal life
Needs little, altogether, and only such
As takes the pain away, and can besides
Strew underneath some number of delights.
More grateful 'tis at times (for nature craves
No artifice nor luxury), if forsooth
There be no golden images of boys
Along the halls, with right hands holding out
The lamps ablaze, the lights for evening feasts,
Of The Nature of Things |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf: more than their usual brightness, "the more certain one becomes that
there is a reason. How could one go on if there were no reason?"
she asked.
She asked the question of some one, but she did not ask it of Evelyn.
Evelyn's sobs were becoming quieter. "There must be a reason,"
she said. "It can't only be an accident. For it was an accident--
it need never have happened."
Mrs. Thornbury sighed deeply.
"But we must not let ourselves think of that," she added, "and let
us hope that they don't either. Whatever they had done it might
have been the same. These terrible illnesses--"
|
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 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: spare figure as though blown there by a hurricane. Atlanta
considered him the root of all strength and all wisdom and it was
not strange that he had absorbed something of their belief. But
for all his habit of making oracular statements and his slightly
pompous manner, he was as kindly a man as the town possessed.
After shaking her hand and prodding Wade in the stomach and
complimenting him, the doctor announced that Aunt Pittypat had
promised on oath that Scarlett should be on no other hospital and
bandage-rolling committee save Mrs. Meade's.
"Oh, dear, but I've promised a thousand ladies already!" said
Scarlett.
Gone With the Wind |
