| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: women were conducted. In this place were together 60,000
pouches and 200 barrels; the pouches contained 25,000,000 of
money in gold, and the barrels were filled with 30,000
pounds of gunpowder.
"Near the barrels stood Selim, my father's favorite, whom I
mentioned to you just now. He stood watch day and night with
a lance provided with a lighted slowmatch in his hand, and
he had orders to blow up everything -- kiosk, guards, women,
gold, and Ali Tepelini himself -- at the first signal given
by my father. I remember well that the slaves, convinced of
the precarious tenure on which they held their lives, passed
The Count of Monte Cristo |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: of a year at Arthur's court. I went thither at the appointed
time, ready equipped for my business there. I did everything
that had been prescribed: I called and searched for Lancelot,
with whom I was to fight, but I could not gain a sight of him: he
had fled and run away. When I came away, Gawain pledged his word
that, if Lancelot is not alive and does not return within the
time agreed upon, no further postponement will be asked, but that
he himself will fight the battle against me in place of Lancelot.
Arthur has no knight, as is well known, whose fame equals his,
but before the flowers bloom again, I shall see, when we come to
blows, whether his fame and his deeds are in accord: I only wish
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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 Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: when Emile Blondet stayed at Les Aigues, one of those houses which are
never seen but in parts of France where stone is scarce. Bits of
bricks picked up anywhere, cobblestones set like diamonds in the clay
mud, formed very solid walls, though worn in places; the roof was
supported by stout branches and covered with rushes and straw, while
the clumsy shutters and the broken door--in short, everything about
the cottage was the product of lucky finds, or of gifts obtained by
begging.
The peasant has an instinct for his habitation like that of an animal
for its nest or its burrow, and this instinct was very marked in all
the arrangements of this cottage. In the first place, the door and the
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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 The Koran: lie; and the fifth that the wrath of God shall be on her if he be of
those who speak the truth.
And were it not for God's grace upon you and His mercy, and that God
is relenting, wise...
Verily, those who bring forward the lie, a band of you,-reckon it
not as an evil for you, nay, it is good for- you; every man of them
shall have what he has earned of sin; and he of them who managed to
aggravate it, for him is mighty woe.
Why did not, when ye heard it, the believing men and believing women
think good in themselves, and say, 'This is an obvious lie?' Why did
they not bring four witnesses to it? but since they did not bring
The Koran |
