| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: "My child! oh, sublime boy!" cried the old man, throwing his arms
round Godefroid, and clasping him to his heart. "You are a poet; you
can boldly ride the whirlwind! Your poetry does not proceed from your
heart; your living, burning thoughts, your creations, move and grow in
your soul.--Go, never reveal your ideas to the vulgar! Be at once the
altar, the priest, and the victim!
"You know Heaven, do you not? You have seen those myriads of angels,
white-winged, and holding golden sistrums, all soaring with equal
flight towards the Throne, and you have often seen their pinions
moving at the breath of God as the trees of the forest bow with one
consent before the storm. Ah, how glorious is unlimited space! Tell
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: And therefore haste I to the parliament,
Either to be restored to my blood,
Or make my ill the advantage of my good.
[Exit.]
ACT THIRD
SCENE I. London. The Parliament-house.
[Flourish. Enter King, Exeter, Gloucester, Warwick, Somerset,
and Suffolk; the Bishop of Winchester, Richard Plantagenet, and
others. Gloucester offers to put up a bill; Winchester snatches
it, tears it.]
WINCHESTER.
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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 Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: creditors, who unanimously elected him, conjointly with Francois
Keller, the head of a rich banking-house and one of those principally
interested in the affair, as liquidators, with full power to protect
both the honor of the family and the interests of the claimants. The
credit of Grandet of Saumur, the hopes he diffused by means of des
Grassins in the minds of all concerned, facilitated the transactions.
Not a single creditor proved recalcitrant; no one thought of passing
his claim to his profit-and-loss account; each and all said
confidently, "Grandet of Saumur will pay."
Six months went by. The Parisians had redeemed the notes in
circulation as they fell due, and held them under lock and key in
Eugenie Grandet |
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 Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: You can lay to it."
"No hab got pipee--" began the other.
Smith raised his fist, and Yan capitulated.
"Allee lightee," he said. "Full up--no loom. You come see."
He dived behind the dirty curtain, Smith and I following, and ran up
a dark stair. The next moment I found myself in an atmosphere which
was literally poisonous. It was all but unbreathable, being loaded
with opium fumes. Never before had I experienced anything like it.
Every breath was an effort. A tin oil-lamp on a box in the middle
of the floor dimly illuminated the horrible place, about the walls
of which ten or twelve bunks were ranged and all of them occupied.
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
