| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: The sky presented itself in all directions like an enormous calm.
The river flowed to his feet with the sound of a kiss. The aerial
dialogue of the nests bidding each other good night in the elms
of the Champs-Elysees was audible. A few stars, daintily piercing
the pale blue of the zenith, and visible to revery alone,
formed imperceptible little splendors amid the immensity. Evening was
unfolding over the head of Jean Valjean all the sweetness of the infinite.
It was that exquisite and undecided hour which says neither yes nor no.
Night was already sufficiently advanced to render it possible
to lose oneself at a little distance and yet there was sufficient
daylight to permit of recognition at close quarters.
Les Miserables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: to see my brother, then settled there with his printing-house. Our
former differences were forgotten, and our meeting was very cordial
and affectionate. He was fast declining in his health, and requested
of me that, in case of his death, which he apprehended not far distant,
I would take home his son, then but ten years of age, and bring him
up to the printing business. This I accordingly perform'd, sending
him a few years to school before I took him into the office.
His mother carried on the business till he was grown up, when I
assisted him with an assortment of new types, those of his father
being in a manner worn out. Thus it was that I made my brother ample
amends for the service I had depriv'd him of by leaving him so early.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne: resembling a vast well, unfathomable and gloomy, drilled into
the lunar soil.
This hole was the "Black Lake"; it was Pluto, a deep circle
which can be conveniently studied from the earth, between the
last quarter and the new moon, when the shadows fall from west
to east.
This black color is rarely met with on the surface of
the satellite. As yet it has only been recognized in the depths
of the circle of Endymion, to the east of the "Cold Sea," in the
northern hemisphere, and at the bottom of Grimaldi's circle, on
the equator, toward the eastern border of the orb.
From the Earth to the Moon |
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 Marie by H. Rider Haggard: So soon as the surviving Boers began to recover by the help of my stores
and medicines and the meat which I shot in plenty, of course great
discussions arose as to our future plans. First it was suggested that
we should trek to Lorenzo Marquez, and wait for a ship there to take us
down to Natal, for none of them would hear of returning beggared to the
Cape to tell the story of their failure and dreadful bereavements. I
pointed out, however, that no ship might come for a long while, perhaps
for one or two years, and that Lorenzo Marquez and its neighborhood
seemed to be a poisonous place to live in!
The next idea was that we should stop where we were, one which I rather
welcomed, as I should have been glad to abide in peace with Marie until
Marie |
