| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go'st
To spy the dead; behold if any else
Be terrible as this. And that on earth
Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I
Am Bertrand, he of Born, who gave King John
The counsel mischievous. Father and son
I set at mutual war. For Absalom
And David more did not Ahitophel,
Spurring them on maliciously to strife.
For parting those so closely knit, my brain
Parted, alas! I carry from its source,
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: had difficulty, even with the help of that very illustrious
prince the Elector Frederick, in at last bringing about more than
one familiar conference with me. In these I again yielded to your
great name, and was prepared to keep silence, and to accept as my
judge either the Archbishop of Treves, or the Bishop of Naumburg;
and thus it was done and concluded. While this was being done
with good hope of success, lo! that other and greater enemy of
yours, Eccius, rushed in with his Leipsic disputation, which he
had undertaken against Carlstadt, and, having taken up a new
question concerning the primacy of the Pope, turned his arms
unexpectedly against me, and completely overthrew the plan for
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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 Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: water, and he went on quickly: "Life is hard for us all, and
I doubt not that even our excellent master, the Pride of the
Ghaut and the Envy of the River----"
"A liar, a flatterer, and a Jackal were all hatched out of the
same egg," said the Adjutant to nobody in particular; for he
was rather a fine sort of a liar on his own account when he
took the trouble.
"Yes, the Envy of the River," the Jackal repeated, raising his
voice. "Even he, I doubt not, finds that since the bridge has
been built good food is more scarce. But on the other hand,
though I would by no means say this to his noble face, he is so
The Second Jungle Book |
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 Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: gods, or some resistless invocation?"
"For what purpose?" asked Spendius.
Striking his head with both his fists, he replied:
"To rid me of her!"
Then speaking to himself with long pauses he said:
"I am no doubt the victim of some holocaust which she has promised to
the gods?--She holds me fast by a chain which people cannot see. If I
walk, it is she that is advancing; when I stop, she is resting! Her
eyes burn me, I hear her voice. She encompasses me, she penetrates me.
It seems to me that she has become my soul!
"And yet between us there are, as it were, the invisible billows of a
Salammbo |
