| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: the rags which covered the bosom of her mother, and wept there. The
old woman received her daughter without issuing from her state of
immobility, or displaying any emotion. The mother possessed in the
highest degree that gravity of savage races, the impassiveness of a
statue upon which all remarks are lost. Did she or did she not love
her daughter? Beneath that mask every human emotion might brood--good
and evil; and from this creature all might be expected. Her gaze
passed slowly from her daughter's beautiful hair, which covered her
like a mantle, to the face of Henri, which she considered with an
indescribable curiosity.
She seemed to ask by what fatality he was there, from what caprice
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: not wait long for the three misers, whom the varlet led in, pale and
panting, except Cornelius, who knew the king's strange freaks.
"Now then, my friends," said Louis to them, "have a good look at the
crowns on the table."
And the three townsmen nibbled at them with their eyes. You may reckon
that the diamond of La Beaupertuys sparkled less than their little
minnow eyes.
"These are yours," added the king.
Thereupon they ceased to admire the crowns to look at each other; and
the guests knew well that old knaves are more expert in grimaces than
any others, because of their physiognomies becoming tolerably curious,
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: necessary than the claiming of rights, and that is, the performing
of duties; to teach him specially, in these so-called intellectual
days, that there is something more than intellect, and that is--
purity and virtue. Let her never be persuaded to forget that her
calling is not the lower and more earthly one of self-assertion,
but the higher and the diviner calling of self-sacrifice; and let
her never desert that higher life, which lives in others and for
others, like her Redeemer and her Lord.
And if any should answer that this doctrine would keep woman a
dependent and a slave, I rejoin--Not so: it would keep her what
she should be--the mistress of all around her, because mistress of
|
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 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: being sung in Austria, the only change being that the words "Father
Kamenski" were replaced by "Father Kutuzov."
Having jerked out these last words as soldiers do and waved his arms
as if flinging something to the ground, the drummer- a lean,
handsome soldier of forty- looked sternly at the singers and screwed
up his eyes. Then having satisfied himself that all eyes were fixed on
him, he raised both arms as if carefully lifting some invisible but
precious object above his head and, holding it there for some seconds,
suddenly flung it down and began:
"Oh, my bower, oh, my bower...!"
"Oh, my bower new...!" chimed in twenty voices, and the castanet
War and Peace |
