| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: The next morning, about mid-day, Madame Evangelista was half seated,
half lying on the edge of her daughter's bed. During that waking hour
they caressed and played together in happy memory of their loving
life; a life in which no discord had ever troubled either the harmony
of their feelings, the agreement of their ideas, or the mutual choice
and enjoyment of their pleasures.
"Poor little darling!" said the mother, shedding true tears, "how can
I help being sorrowful when I think that after I have fulfilled your
every wish during your whole life you will belong, to-morrow night, to
a man you must obey?"
"Oh, my dear mother, as for obeying!--" and Natalie made a little
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: back to the car, in case we miss her ladyship's maid. Don't let
her go off in the wagonette."
"Very good, sir."
He put the luggage on a seat and ran back to the exit. Exactly
opposite to where we were standing was a first-class carriage.
As the guard's whistle was blown:
"Have you got my bag, Peter?" said a plaintive voice.
"Yes, m'dear," and Sir Peter and Lady Tagel passed down the
platform. We watched them greedily.
The train began to move.
"The last lap," said Berry. "Courage, my travel-stained
The Brother of Daphne |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: things into bigotry is an inexplicable mystery, but the fact is
evident. Everybody can see that bigots do not walk, do not sit, do not
speak, as men of the world walk, sit, and speak. Under their roof
every one is ill at ease, no one laughs, stiffness and formality
infect everything, from the mistress' cap down to her pincushion; eyes
are not honest, the folks are more like shadows, and the lady of the
house seems perched on a throne of ice.
One morning poor Granville discerned with grief and pain that all the
symptoms of bigotry had invaded his home. There are in the world
different spheres in which the same effects are seen though produced
by dissimilar causes. Dulness hedges such miserable homes round with
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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 A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare: Fetch me this hearbe, and be thou heere againe,
Ere the Leuiathan can swim a league
Pucke. Ile put a girdle about the earth, in forty minutes
Ober. Hauing once this iuyce,
Ile watch Titania, when she is asleepe,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:
The next thing when she waking lookes vpon,
(Be it on Lyon, Beare, or Wolfe, or Bull,
On medling Monkey, or on busie Ape)
Shee shall pursue it, with the soule of loue.
And ere I take this charme off from her sight,
A Midsummer Night's Dream |
