| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: of silver gilt or of copper on their breast. On certain grand
festival days, particularly Saint Martha's day, they were permitted,
as a high favor and a supreme happiness, to dress themselves
as nuns and to carry out the offices and practice of Saint-Benoit
for a whole day. In the early days the nuns were in the habit
of lending them their black garments. This seemed profane, and the
prioress forbade it. Only the novices were permitted to lend.
It is remarkable that these performances, tolerated and encouraged,
no doubt, in the convent out of a secret spirit of proselytism
and in order to give these children a foretaste of the holy habit,
were a genuine happiness and a real recreation for the scholars.
Les Miserables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: defence was not a long one, but it was backed by the full force
of his emphatic manner. Never, he said, in the course of his
long experience, had he known a charge of murder rest on slighter
evidence. Not only was it entirely circumstantial, but the
greater part of it was practically unproved. Let them take the
testimony they had heard and sift it impartially. The strychnine
had been found in a drawer in the prisoner's room. That drawer
was an unlocked one, as he had pointed out, and he submitted that
there was no evidence to prove that it was the prisoner who had
concealed the poison there. It was, in fact, a wicked and
malicious attempt on the part of some third person to fix the
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: down on each side of him, and looked savagely at him with their fiery
eyes. After a short time, when they had warmed themselves, they said:
'Comrade, shall we have a game of cards?' 'Why not?' he replied, 'but
just show me your paws.' Then they stretched out their claws. 'Oh,'
said he, 'what long nails you have! Wait, I must first cut them for
you.' Thereupon he seized them by the throats, put them on the
cutting-board and screwed their feet fast. 'I have looked at your
fingers,' said he, 'and my fancy for card-playing has gone,' and he
struck them dead and threw them out into the water. But when he had
made away with these two, and was about to sit down again by his fire,
out from every hole and corner came black cats and black dogs with
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
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 Blix by Frank Norris: his weight, and recalled to each other details of the struggle.
"When he broke that time, wasn't it grand?"
"And when I first felt him bite! It was so sudden--why, it
actually frightened me. I never--no, never in my life!" exclaimed
Blix, "was so happy as I am at this moment. Oh, Condy, to think--
just to THINK!"
"Isn't it glory hallelujah?"
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