| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: and was soon lost amidst the waves.
All was again silent, but his words rang in my ears. I burned with rage
to pursue the murderer of my peace and precipitate him into the ocean.
I walked up and down my room hastily and perturbed, while my imagination
conjured up a thousand images to torment and sting me. Why had I not
followed him and closed with him in mortal strife? But I had suffered
him to depart, and he had directed his course towards the mainland.
I shuddered to think who might be the next victim sacrificed to his
insatiate revenge. And then I thought again of his words --
"I WILL BE WITH YOU ON YOUR WEDDING-NIGHT." That, then,
was the period fixed for the fulfillment of my destiny.
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: Grandet is a g-g-good uncle; he m-m-means well. He has sold his
v-v-vintage. D-d-don't declare a f-f-failure; c-c-call a meeting;
l-l-liquidate; and then Gr-Gr-Grandet will see what he c-c-can do.
B-b-better liquidate than l-let the l-l-law st-st-stick its n-n-nose
in. Hein? isn't it so?"
"Exactly so," said the president.
"B-because, don't you see, Monsieur de B-Bonfons, a man must l-l-look
b-b-before he l-leaps. If you c-c-can't, you c-c-can't. M-m-must know
all about the m-m-matter, all the resources and the debts, if you
d-d-don't want to be r-r-ruined. Hein? isn't it so?"
"Certainly," said the president. "I'm of opinion that in a few months
Eugenie Grandet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: somewhere on the cool side of the Arctic Circle.
Kadlu, being a good hunter, was rich in iron harpoons, snow-
knives, bird-darts, and all the other things that make life easy
up there in the great cold; and he was the head of his tribe,
or, as they say, "the man who knows all about it by practice."
This did not give him any authority, except now and then he
could advise his friends to change their hunting-grounds;
but Kotuko used it to domineer a little, in the lazy, fat Inuit
fashion, over the other boys, when they came out at night to
play ball in the moonlight, or to sing the Child's Song to the
Aurora Borealis.
The Second Jungle Book |
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 Philebus by Plato: degree of pleasure, whether great or small, was thought to be necessary to
him who chose the life of thought and wisdom.
PROTARCHUS: Yes, certainly, we said so.
SOCRATES: Then he will live without pleasure; and who knows whether this
may not be the most divine of all lives?
PROTARCHUS: If so, the gods, at any rate, cannot be supposed to have
either joy or sorrow.
SOCRATES: Certainly not--there would be a great impropriety in the
assumption of either alternative. But whether the gods are or are not
indifferent to pleasure is a point which may be considered hereafter if in
any way relevant to the argument, and whatever is the conclusion we will
|
