| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: whim, results in a beautiful rose-window worthy of our compasses.
We shall also notice that, in each sector, the various chords, the
elements of the spiral windings, are parallel to one another and
gradually draw closer together as they near the centre. With the
two radiating lines that frame them they form obtuse angles on one
side and acute angles on the other; and these angles remain
constant in the same sector, because the chords are parallel.
There is more than this: these same angles, the obtuse as well as
the acute, do not alter in value, from one sector to another, at
any rate so far as the conscientious eye can judge. Taken as a
whole, therefore, the rope-latticed edifice consists of a series of
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: feeding heart and fancy on dangerous and unsubstantial food,
and was fast brushing the innocent bloom from her nature by
a premature acquaintance with the darker side of life, which
comes soon enough to all of us.
She was beginning to feel rather than see this, for much
describing of other people's passions and feelings set her
to studying and speculating about her own. a morbid amusement
in which healthy young minds do not voluntarily indulge.
Wrongdoing always brings its own punishment, and when Jo
most needed hers, she got it.
I don't know whether the study of Shakespeare helped her
Little Women |
