| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: at the milk in the bowls, each protected by a plate, while he
purrs his morning greeting to the world. A moment later the widow
shows her face; she is tricked out in a net cap attached to a
false front set on awry, and shuffles into the room in her
slipshod fashion. She is an oldish woman, with a bloated
countenance, and a nose like a parrot's beak set in the middle of
it; her fat little hands (she is as sleek as a church rat) and
her shapeless, slouching figure are in keeping with the room that
reeks of misfortune, where hope is reduced to speculate for the
meanest stakes. Mme. Vauquer alone can breathe that tainted air
without being disheartened by it. Her face is as fresh as a
Father Goriot |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: We should read Moschus's lament for Bion, the sweet shepherd,
before looking at this picture, or study the picture as a
preparation for the lament. We have nearly the same images in
both. For either victim the high groves and forest dells murmur;
the flowers exhale sad perfume from their buds; the nightingale
mourns on the craggy lands, and the swallow in the long-winding
vales; 'the satyrs, too, and fauns dark-veiled groan,' and the
fountain nymphs within the wood melt into tearful waters. The
sheep and goats leave their pasture; and oreads, 'who love to scale
the most inaccessible tops of all uprightest rocks,' hurry down
from the song of their wind-courting pines; while the dryads bend
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: back, uncovering her white arm as far as the shoulder. Heemskirk
gripping the door-handle, as if to crush it, felt like a man just
risen to his feet from a drinking bout.
And Freya knew that he was watching her. She knew. She had seen
the door move as she came out of the passage. She was aware of his
eyes being on her, with scornful bitterness, with triumphant
contempt.
"You are there," she thought, levelling the long glass. "Oh, well,
look on, then!"
The green islets appeared like black shadows, the ashen sea was
smooth as glass, the clear robe of the colourless dawn, in which
'Twixt Land & Sea |
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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: spot where the dead captain lay, called to him, asking his business, for
I could speak his language well.
He answered that he had come with a message from Quabie. This was the
message: that Quabie's eldest son had been cruelly murdered by the fat
white man called "Vulture" who lived with the Heer Marais, and that he,
Quabie, would have blood for blood. Still, he did not wish to kill the
young white chieftainess (that was Marie) or the others in the house,
with whom he had no quarrel. Therefore if we would give up the fat
white man that he might make him "die slowly," Quabie would be content
with his life and with the cattle that he had already taken by way of a
fine, and leave us and the house unmolested.
Marie |
