| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: dark curls escaped from beneath a bright Indian handkerchief, knotted
carelessly about her head after the fashion of Creole women. The bed
lay in disorder that told of broken slumber. A painter would have paid
money to stay a while to see the scene that I saw. Under the luxurious
hanging draperies, the pillow, crushed into the depths of an eider-
down quilt, its lace border standing out in contrast against the
background of blue silk, bore a vague impress that kindled the
imagination. A pair of satin slippers gleamed from the great bear-skin
rug spread by the carved mahogany lions at the bed-foot, where she had
flung them off in her weariness after the ball. A crumpled gown hung
over a chair, the sleeves touching the floor; stockings which a breath
Gobseck |
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 Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: thirty feet out of the water, upright, and alive, and its roots must
have been enormously deep and wide. It was drifting along the coast,
through the heavy seas. Maskull eyed it incuriously for a few
minutes. Then it dawned on him that it might be a good thing to
investigate its nature. Without stopping to weigh the danger, he
immediately swam out, caught hold of the lowest branch, and swung
himself up.
He looked aloft and saw that the main stem was thick to the very top,
terminating in a knob that somewhat resembled a human head. He made
his way toward this knob, through the multitude of boughs, which were
covered with tough, slippery, marine leaves, like seaweed. Arriving
|
