| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: am mistaken, I think I have an inkling of the reason.
The old cabin, comfortably wadded though it be, possesses serious
disadvantages: it is littered with the ruins of the children's
nurseries. These ruins are so close-welded to the rest of the home
that my forceps cannot extract them without difficulty; and to
remove them would be an exhausting business for the Clotho and
possibly beyond her strength. It is a case of the resistance of
Gordian knots, which not even the very spinstress who fastened them
is capable of untying. The encumbering litter, therefore, will
remain.
If the Spider were to stay alone, the reduction of space, when all
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: As she entered the house.
Scarcely conscious indeed
Of his steps, he too follow'd, and enter'd.
XXI.
He enter'd
Unnoticed; Lucile never stirr'd: so concentred
And wholly absorb'd in her thoughts she appear'd.
Her back to the window was turn'd. As he near'd
The sofa, her face from the glass was reflected.
Her dark eyes were fix'd on the ground. Pale, dejected,
And lost in profound meditation she seem'd.
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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 Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: criminal law that his duty was a pleasure to him, the kindness of his
heart constantly kept him in torture, and he was nipped as in a vise
between his conscience and his pity. The services of an examining
judge are better paid than those of a judge in civil actions, but they
do not therefore prove a temptation; they are too onerous. Popinot, a
man of modest and virtuous learning, without ambition, an
indefatigable worker, never complained of his fate; he sacrificed his
tastes and his compassionate soul to the public good, and allowed
himself to be transported to the noisome pools of criminal
examinations, where he showed himself alike severe and beneficent. His
clerk sometimes would give the accused some money to buy tobacco, or a
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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 Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: No doubt, to many, the evening service is no more than a duty
fulfilled. The child who says his prayer at his mother's knee can
have no real conception of the meaning of the words he lisps so
readily, yet he goes to his little bed with a sense of heavenly
protection that he would miss were the prayer forgotten. The
average Samoan is but a larger child in most things, and would lay
an uneasy head on his wooden pillow if he had not joined, even
perfunctorily, in the evening service. With my husband, prayer,
the direct appeal, was a necessity. When he was happy he felt
impelled to offer thanks for that undeserved joy; when in sorrow,
or pain, to call for strength to bear what must be borne.
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