| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: I am no longer lady Matilda Fitzwater, of Arlingford Castle,
but plain Maid Marian, of Sherwood Forest."
"Long live Maid Marian!" re-echoed the foresters.
"Oh false girl!" said the baron, "do you renounce your name and parentage?"
"Not my parentage," said Marian, "but my name indeed:
do not all maids renounce it at the altar?"
"The altar!" said the baron: "grant me patience! what do you
mean by the altar?"
"Pile green turf," said the friar, "wreathe it with flowers,
and crown it with fruit, and we will show the noble baron what we
mean by the altar."
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: relics of what was once the highest expression of living things, at
the time when the solid land was taking shape from the oceanic
ooze. Cut and polished length-wise, the fossil shows a magnificent
logarithmic spiral, the general pattern of the dwelling which was a
pearl palace, with numerous chambers traversed by a siphuncular
corridor.
To this day, the last representative of the Cephalopoda with
partitioned shells, the Nautilus of the Southern Seas, remains
faithful to the ancient design; it has not improved upon its
distant predecessors. It has altered the position of the
siphuncle, has placed it in the centre instead of leaving it on the
The Life of the Spider |
