| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: one there, everything must be at an end between you and me.'
"The extraordinary dignity of his wife's attitude filled him with deep
esteem for her, and inspired him with one of those resolves which need
only a grander stage to become immortal.
" 'No, Josephine,' he said, 'I will not open it. In either event we
should be parted for ever. Listen; I know all the purity of your soul,
I know you lead a saintly life, and would not commit a deadly sin to
save your life.'--At these words Madame de Merret looked at her
husband with a haggard stare.--'See, here is your crucifix,' he went
on. 'Swear to me before God that there is no one in there; I will
believe you--I will never open that door.'
La Grande Breteche |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Market-Place by Harold Frederic: him almost handsome, this curious, changeable brother
of hers, as he beat with his fist in a measured way
upon the desk-top to emphasize his words, and fastened
his commanding gaze upon her.
"We took very nearly twenty thousand pounds to-day,"
he went on. "This is the twenty-eighth of February.
A fortnight ago today was the first settlement.
I wasn't here, but Semple was--and the working of it
is all in his hands. He kept as still as a mouse that
first day. They had to deliver to us 26,000 shares,
and they hadn't got one, but we didn't make any fuss.
The Market-Place |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: I think it is of Thee the sparrows sing.
Come rather on some autumn afternoon,
When red and brown are burnished on the leaves,
And the fields echo to the gleaner's song,
Come when the splendid fulness of the moon
Looks down upon the rows of golden sheaves,
And reap Thy harvest: we have waited long.
Poem: Easter Day
The silver trumpets rang across the Dome:
The people knelt upon the ground with awe:
And borne upon the necks of men I saw,
|
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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: and do all the work which requires hands, in the same manner.
They have a kind of hard flints, which, by grinding against other
stones, they form into instruments, that serve instead of wedges,
axes, and hammers. With tools made of these flints, they likewise
cut their hay, and reap their oats, which there grow naturally in
several fields; the YAHOOS draw home the sheaves in carriages,
and the servants tread them in certain covered huts to get out
the grain, which is kept in stores. They make a rude kind of
earthen and wooden vessels, and bake the former in the sun.
If they can avoid casualties, they die only of old age, and are
buried in the obscurest places that can be found, their friends
Gulliver's Travels |
