| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Or hide me nightly in a Charnell house,
Orecouered quite with dead mens ratling bones,
With reckie shankes and yellow chappels sculls:
Or bid me go into a new made graue,
And hide me with a dead man in his graue,
Things that to heare them told, haue made me tremble,
And I will doe it without feare or doubt,
To liue an vnstained wife to my sweet Loue
Fri. Hold then: goe home, be merrie, giue consent,
To marrie Paris: wensday is to morrow,
To morrow night looke that thou lie alone,
Romeo and Juliet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: mortgage to you, you will seem to be harassing him on the Shopman's
account, and that will be killing two birds with one stone; when
Courtecuisse finds himself a beggar, like Fourchon, he'll be capable
of anything. Courtecuisse has ruined himself on the Bachelerie; he has
cultivated all the land, and trained fruit on the walls. The little
property is now worth four thousand francs, and the count will gladly
pay you that to get possession of the three acres that jut right into
his land. If Courtecuisse were not such an idle hound he could have
paid his interest with the game he might have killed there."
"Well, transfer the mortgage to me, and I'll make my butter out of it;
the count shall buy the three acres, and I shall get the house and
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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 Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: would not have led him to suspect it. "Hem," thought Monte
Cristo, "he begins to conceal his losses; a month since he
boasted of them." Then aloud, -- "Oh, madame, M. Danglars is
so skilful, he will soon regain at the Bourse what he loses
elsewhere."
"I see that you participate in a prevalent error," said
Madame Danglars. "What is it?" said Monte Cristo.
"That M. Danglars speculates, whereas he never does."
"Truly, madame, I recollect M. Debray told me -- apropos,
what is become of him? I have seen nothing of him the last
three or four days."
The Count of Monte Cristo |
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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: closer look, however, and a confirming touch revealed that the man
had found a "road apple," or, as it is sometimes called, a "horse
biscuit." "Just what I was looking for," the old man said, now more
perfectly pleased than ever; "I can use this biscuit to cook my
chicken soup. Seems dry enough to burn right well."
Now the old man, between his nearsightedness and his preoccupation
with his great discoveries, wandered unknowingly over to the side of
the road, and pretty soon he stepped off into a ditch and fell down
with remarkable violence. A farmer not very far off saw this
episode, and hurried over to help the old man up. As he got to his
feet, the old man, wincing with pain and holding one arm, cried out
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