| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: things in thy course like a courtesan eager for pleasure in her days
of splendor, thou hast steeped thyself in blood like some queen
stupefied by empery. Dost thou not remember to have been dull and
heavy at times, and the sudden marvelous lucidity of other moments; as
when Art emerges from an orgy? Oh! poet, painter, and singer, lover of
splendid ceremonies and protector of the arts, was thy friendship for
art perchance a caprice, that so thou shouldst sleep beneath
magnificent canopies? Was there not a day when, in thy fantastic
pride, though chastity and humility were prescribed to thee, thou
hadst brought all things beneath thy feet, and set thy foot on the
necks of princes; when earthly dominion, and wealth, and the mind of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: With hands, through denser-matted hair,
More tightly clenched than then they were.
When, bathed in Dawn of living red,
Majestic frowned the mountain head,
"Tell me my fault," was all he said.
When, at high Noon, the blazing sky
Scorched in his head each haggard eye,
Then keenest rose his weary cry.
And when at Eve the unpitying sun
Smiled grimly on the solemn fun,
"Alack," he sighed, "what HAVE I done?"
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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 Sportsman by Xenophon: rest," etc.
[16] {ormous}. Lit. "moorings," i.e. "favourite haunts." Cf. {dusorma}
below. Al. "stelle die Fallnetze auf die Wechsel," Lenz.
[17] {anteridas}. See a note in the "Class. Rev." X. i. p. 7, by G. S.
Sale: "It can only mean long sticks used as stretchers or
spreaders to hold up the net between and beyond the props." Cf.
Thuc. vii. 36, 2.
[18] Or, "within the bay of network."
[19] {sunekhontai en tois psilois ai e}. "Denn diese werden an
unbestandenen Orten durch die Leine niedergezogen," Lenz;
{sunelkontai} conj. Schn.; {sunerkhontai} al., "concurrunt," vid.
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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 Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: was given no other man in his age to blend merry wit and caustic
ridicule so happily together; therefore those who read his lines
were forced to laugh at his fancy, even whilst hurt by his irony.
Now in order to keep this talent in constant practice, he was
wont to celebrate in inimitable verse such events, be they
private or public, as happened at court, or befell the courtiers;
and inasmuch as his subjects were frequently of a licentious
nature, his lines were generally of a scandalous character. He
therefore became the public censor of court folly; and so
unerringly did his barbed shafts hit the weaknesses at which they
aimed, that his productions were equally the terror of those he
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