| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: that later life he was to spend acquiring, with infinite toil, a
shadow of what he might then have got with ease and fully. But if
his Genoese education was in this particular imperfect, he was
fortunate in the branches that more immediately touched on his
career. The physical laboratory was the best mounted in Italy.
Bancalari, the professor of natural philosophy, was famous in his
day; by what seems even an odd coincidence, he went deeply into
electromagnetism; and it was principally in that subject that
Signor Flaminio, questioned in Latin and answering in Italian,
passed his Master of Arts degree with first-class honours. That he
had secured the notice of his teachers, one circumstance
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: and so becoming!" observed Meg complacently. "Have you anything
decent, Jo?"
"Scarlet and gray boating suit, good enough for me. I shall
row and tramp about, so I don't want any starch to think of. You'll
come, Betty?"
"If you won't let any boys talk to me."
"Not a boy!"
"I like to please Laurie, and I'm not afraid of Mr. Brooke,
he is so kind. But I don't want to play, or sing, or say anything.
I'll work hard and not trouble anyone, and you'll take care of me,
Jo, so I'll go."
Little Women |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fables by Robert Louis Stevenson: your clothes at once." And as soon as the young man had stripped,
he examined him from head to foot. "No," he cried with great
relief, "there is not a flake broken. Cheer up, my young friend,
your paint is as good as new."
"Good God!" cried the young man, "and what then can be the use of
it?"
"Why," said the physician, "I perceive I must explain to you the
nature of the action of my paint. It does not exactly prevent sin;
it extenuates instead the painful consequences. It is not so much
for this world, as for the next; it is not against life; in short,
it is against death that I have fitted you out. And when you come
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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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: of a dishevelled reputation, a Countess von Rosen, wife or widow of
a cloudy count, no longer in her second youth, and already bereft of
some of her attractions, who unequivocally occupies the station of
the Baron's mistress. I had thought, at first, that she was but a
hired accomplice, a mere blind or buffer for the more important
sinner. A few hours' acquaintance with Madame von Rosen for ever
dispelled the illusion. She is one rather to make than to prevent a
scandal, and she values none of those bribes - money, honours, or
employment - with which the situation might be gilded. Indeed, as a
person frankly bad, she pleased me, in the court of Grunewald, like
a piece of nature.
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