| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: seemed not free, but sticky; attraction and repulsion were its
constituents. Apart from this wish to play a personal part in what
was going on around and beneath him, the scenery had no significance
for him.
So preoccupied was he, that his arm partly released its clasp. Oceaxe
turned around to gaze at him. Whether or not she was satisfied with
what she saw, she uttered a low laugh, like a peculiar chord.
"Cold again so quickly, Maskull?"
"What do you want?" he asked absently, still looking over the side.
"it's extraordinary how drawn I feel to all this."
"You wish to take a hand?"
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Modeste Mignon by Honore de Balzac: Madame Mignon, notwithstanding her melancholy, could not help smiling
at the idea of Madame Latournelle reading Childe Harold. The stern
scion of a parliamentary house accepted the smile as an approval of
her doctrine.
"And, therefore, my dear Madame Mignon," she went on, "you have taken
Modeste's fancies, which are nothing but the results of her reading,
for a love-affair. Remember, she is just twenty. Girls fall in love
with themselves at that age; they dress to see themselves well-
dressed. I remember I used to make my little sister, now dead, put on
a man's hat and pretend we were monsieur and madame. You see, you had
a very happy youth in Frankfort; but let us be just,--Modeste is
Modeste Mignon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: the wise religious men tell us nothing that we can trust; and the
wise contemplative men, nothing that can give us peace. But there
is yet a third class, to whom we may turn--the wise practical men.
We have sat at the feet of the poets who sang of heaven, and they
have told us their dreams. We have listened to the poets who sang
of earth, and they have chanted to us dirges and words of despair.
But there is one class of men more:- men, not capable of vision, nor
sensitive to sorrow, but firm of purpose--practised in business;
learned in all that can be, (by handling,) known. Men, whose hearts
and hopes are wholly in this present world, from whom, therefore, we
may surely learn, at least, how, at present, conveniently to live in
|
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 Albert Savarus by Honore de Balzac: went on after a pause, "it is a very sweet thing, and to a woman, a
strong element of fidelity to know that she is all in all on earth to
the man she loves; to find him lonely, with no family, with nothing in
his heart but his love--in short, to have him wholly to herself."
When two lovers thus understand each other, the heart feels delicious
peace, supreme tranquillity. Certainty is the basis for which human
feelings crave, for it is never lacking to religious sentiment; man is
always certain of being fully repaid by God. Love never believes
itself secure but by this resemblance to divine love. And the raptures
of that moment must have been fully felt to be understood; it is
unique in life; it can never return no more, alas! than the emotions
Albert Savarus |
