| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: in three months under the insane dominion of that man? If my failure
of duty concerned only myself--" A noble smile crossed her face. "But
shall I kill my children! My God!" she exclaimed. "Why speak of these
things? Marry, and let me die!"
She said the words in a tone so bitter, so hollow, that they stifled
the remonstrances of my passion.
"You uttered cries that day beneath the walnut-tree; I have uttered my
cries here beneath these alders, that is all," I said; "I will be
silent henceforth."
"Your generosity shames me," she said, raising her eyes to heaven.
We reached the terrace and found the count sitting in a chair, in the
The Lily of the Valley |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: very best; but I am afraid that I shall not be able to give you very many
as good: and now, in your turn, you are to fulfil your promise, and tell
me what virtue is in the universal; and do not make a singular into a
plural, as the facetious say of those who break a thing, but deliver virtue
to me whole and sound, and not broken into a number of pieces: I have
given you the pattern.
MENO: Well then, Socrates, virtue, as I take it, is when he, who desires
the honourable, is able to provide it for himself; so the poet says, and I
say too--
'Virtue is the desire of things honourable and the power of attaining
them.'
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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 Pagan and Christian Creeds by Edward Carpenter: usage of placing a seal on the forehead came from the same
source; that baptism itself after a time was called a mystery
(); that the sacred cakes and barley-drink of
the Mysteries became the milk and honey and bread and
wine of the first Christian Eucharists, and that the occasional
sacrifice of a lamb on the Christian altar ("whose mention
is often suppressed") probably originated in the same way.
Indeed, the conception of the communion-table AS an altar
and many other points of ritual gradually established themselves
from these sources as time went on.[2] It is hardly
necessary to say more in proof of the extent to which in
Pagan and Christian Creeds |
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 The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: As vaded gloss no rubbing will refresh,
As flowers dead lie wither'd on the ground,
As broken glass no cement can redress,
So beauty blemish'd once's for ever lost,
In spite of physic, painting, pain and cost.
XIV.
Good night, good rest. Ah, neither be my share:
She bade good night that kept my rest away;
And daff'd me to a cabin hang'd with care,
To descant on the doubts of my decay.
'Farewell,' quoth she, 'and come again tomorrow:
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