| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: failure. As I took my leave of her, I caught a gleam of hate and rage
in her eyes that made me shudder. We parted enemies. She would fain
have crushed me out of existence; and for my own part, I felt pity for
her, and for some natures pity is the deadliest of insults. This
feeling pervaded the last representations I put before her; and when I
left her, I left, I think, dread in the depths of her soul, by
declaring that, turn which way she would, ruin lay inevitably before
her.
" 'If I were to see M. le Comte, your children's property at any rate
would----'
" 'I should be at your mercy,' she said, breaking in upon me, disgust
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: And the Soul said to him, 'In a city that I know of there is an inn
that standeth by a river. I sat there with sailors who drank of
two different-coloured wines, and ate bread made of barley, and
little salt fish served in bay leaves with vinegar. And as we sat
and made merry, there entered to us an old man bearing a leathern
carpet and a lute that had two horns of amber. And when he had
laid out the carpet on the floor, he struck with a quill on the
wire strings of his lute, and a girl whose face was veiled ran in
and began to dance before us. Her face was veiled with a veil of
gauze, but her feet were naked. Naked were her feet, and they
moved over the carpet like little white pigeons. Never have I seen
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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 The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: "When?"
"Yesterday."
"You see they are working pretty close," said Grayson, to
his employer, and then to Bridge: "Well, if you took that
cayuse from one of Pesita's bunch you can't call that stealin'.
Your room's in there, back of the office, an' you'll find some
clothes there that the last man forgot to take with him. You
ken have 'em, an' from the looks o' yourn you need 'em."
"Thank you," replied Bridge. "My clothes are a bit rusty. I
shall have to speak to James about them," and he passed
through into the little bedroom off the office, and closed the
The Mucker |
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 Apology by Plato: For if the demigods are the illegitimate sons of gods, whether by the
nymphs or by any other mothers, of whom they are said to be the sons--what
human being will ever believe that there are no gods if they are the sons
of gods? You might as well affirm the existence of mules, and deny that of
horses and asses. Such nonsense, Meletus, could only have been intended by
you to make trial of me. You have put this into the indictment because you
had nothing real of which to accuse me. But no one who has a particle of
understanding will ever be convinced by you that the same men can believe
in divine and superhuman things, and yet not believe that there are gods
and demigods and heroes.
I have said enough in answer to the charge of Meletus: any elaborate
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