| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: chasubles, she has crowned the canopy with so many feathers, that on
the occasion of the last Corpus Christi procession as great a crowd
came together as to see a man hanged, just to stare at the priests in
their splendid dresses and all the vessels regilt. This house too is a
sort of Holy Land. It was I who hindered her from giving those three
pictures to the Church--a Domenichino, a Correggio, and an Andrea del
Sarto--worth a good deal of money."
"But Angelique?" asked the young man.
"If you do not marry her, Angelique is done for," said the Count. "Our
holy apostles counsel her to live a virgin martyr. I have had the
utmost difficulty in stirring up her little heart, since she has been
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Which shall to all our Nights, and Dayes to come,
Giue solely soueraigne sway, and Masterdome
Macb. We will speake further,
Lady. Onely looke vp cleare:
To alter fauor, euer is to feare:
Leaue all the rest to me.
Exeunt.
Scena Sexta.
Hoboyes, and Torches. Enter King, Malcolme, Donalbaine,
Banquo, Lenox,
Macduff, Rosse, Angus, and Attendants.
Macbeth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: The next second she had joined me on the white highway, the
faithful Toby a short pace behind her. His not to reason why.
A good fellow, Toby.
It was rather a nervous moment. But, in spite of an approaching
wagonette, she walked bravely beside me with the puppet-box
under her arm. The occupants of the vehicle began to evince
great curiosity as we drew nearer, but their mare caught sight of
my nose at the critical moment and provided an opportune
diversion.
"So perish all our enemies!" she said with a sigh of relief.
"Stage-fright, Judy, dear. You'll be all right in a minute.
The Brother of Daphne |
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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: sands."
"But I am barefoot," wailed Annette, "and I am afraid of the
fiddlers."
Fiddler crabs, you know, aren't pleasant things to be dangling
around one's bare feet, and they are more numerous than sand
fleas down at Henderson's Point.
"True," assented the fisherman; "then we shall have to wade
back."
The fishing was over when they rounded the point and came in
sight of the cheery bonfire with its Rembrandt-like group, and
the air was savoury with the smell of frying fish and crabs. The
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
