| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: At length M. de Nueil received a missive through the instrumentality
of Jacques, a letter that bore the arms of Burgundy on the scented
seal, a letter written on vellum notepaper.
He rushed away at once to lock himself in, and read and re-read /her/
letter:--
"You are punishing me very severely, monsieur, both for the
friendliness of my effort to spare you a rebuff, and for the
attraction which intellect always has for me. I put confidence in
the generosity of youth, and you have disappointed me. And yet, if
I did not speak unreservedly (which would have been perfectly
ridiculous), at any rate I spoke frankly of my position, so that
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: that I dreaded release, which seemed but the facing of an unsympathetic
world. The day arrived, and, strange as it may sound, it was with
regret that I left my cell. It had become my home, and no home waited
me outside.
"How utterly crushed I felt; feelings of companionship had gone out to
my unfortunate fellow-prisoners, whom I had seen daily, but the sound
of whose voices I had never heard, whilst outside friendships were
dead, and companionships were for ever broken, and I felt as an outcast
of society, with the mark of 'gaol bird' upon me, that I must cover my
face, and stand aside and cry 'unclean.' Such were my feelings.
"The morning of discharge came, and I am once more on the streets.
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett: his crew, and for company's sake in dull days and nights he turns
to his book. Most of us old shipmasters came to know 'most
everything about something; one would take to readin' on farming
topics, and some were great on medicine,--but Lord help their poor
crews!--or some were all for history, and now and then there'd be
one like me that gave his time to the poets. I was well acquainted
with a shipmaster that was all for bees an' beekeepin'; and if you
met him in port and went aboard, he'd sit and talk a terrible while
about their havin' so much information, and the money that could be
made out of keepin' 'em. He was one of the smartest captains that
ever sailed the seas, but they used to call the Newcastle,
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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 Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: were inspired by various feelings, arrived at Havre four
days after their departure from Paris. It was about five
o'clock in the afternoon, and no intelligence had yet been
received of Madame. They were soon engaged in quest of
apartments; but the greatest confusion immediately ensued
among the masters, and violent quarrels among their
attendants. In the midst of this disorder, the Comte de
Guiche fancied he recognized Manicamp. It was, indeed,
Manicamp himself; but as Malicorne had taken possession of
his very best costume, he had not been able to get any other
than a suit of violet velvet trimmed with silver. Guiche
Ten Years Later |
