| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: idol. That Juana might never bow her head under their hereditary
shame, the mother had the courage to renounce her child for her
child's sake, and to seek, not without horrible suffering, for another
mother, another home, other principles to follow, other and saintlier
examples to imitate. The abdication of a mother is either a revolting
act or a sublime one; in this case, was it not sublime?
At Tarragona a lucky accident threw the Lagounias in her way, under
circumstances which enabled her to recognize the integrity of the
Spaniard and the noble virtue of his wife. She came to them at a time
when her proposal seemed that of a liberating angel. The fortune and
honor of the merchant, momentarily compromised, required a prompt and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: a little gifted that way and not to be butter-fingered, but what
is chiefly necessary is patience and daily practice for long,
long years."
His modesty surprised me all the more, because of all performers
who are generally infatuated with their own skill, he was the
most wonderfully clever one I had met. Certainly I had frequently
seen him, for everybody had seen him in some circus or other, or
even in traveling shows, performing the trick that consists of
putting a man or woman with extended arms against a wooden
target, and in throwing knives between their fingers and round
their heads, from a distance. There is nothing very extraordinary
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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 Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: syllogistic symbols of crime and punishment--if we further add the
easy-going idea of the multitude, that the inscribing of a law in
the statute-book is a sufficient remedy for social diseases, we
can readily understand how this exaggerated and illusory
confidence in punishment is so persistent, and crops up in every
theoretical or practical discussion, in spite of the strong
refutation which is daily afforded by facts and psychological
observation.
All human actions, like the actions of animals, are developed
between the two opposite poles of pleasure and pain, by the
attraction of the former and the repulsion of the latter. And
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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 The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: the coast lay open to his sight, with Baharna's stone terraces
and the smoke of its chimneys mystical in the distance. And beyond
that the illimitable Southern Sea with all its curious secrets.
Thus far there had been much winding around the mountain, so
that the farther and carven side was still hidden. Carter now
saw a ledge running upward and to the left which seemed to head
the way he wished, and this course he took in the hope that it
might prove continuous. After ten minutes he saw it was indeed
no cul-de-sac, but that it led steeply on in an arc which would,
unless suddenly interrupted or deflected, bring him after a few
hours' climbing to that unknown southern slope overlooking the
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
