| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Schoolmistress and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov: or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at
you who exchange heaven for earth. I don't want to understand
you.
"To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I
renounce the two millions of which I once dreamed as of paradise
and which now I despise. To deprive myself of the right to the
money I shall go out from here five hours before the time fixed,
and so break the compact. . . ."
When the banker had read this he laid the page on the table,
kissed the strange man on the head, and went out of the lodge,
weeping. At no other time, even when he had lost heavily on the
The Schoolmistress and Other Stories |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: jury, if the laws would support an English gentleman, wearing, we
will suppose, his sword, in defending himself by force against a
violent personal aggression of the nature offered to this
prisoner, they will not less protect a foreigner and a stranger,
involved in the same unpleasing circumstances. If, therefore,
gentlemen of the jury, when thus pressed by a VIS MAJOR, the
object of obloquy to a whole company, and of direct violence from
one at least, and, as he might reasonably apprehend, from more,
the panel had produced the weapon which his countrymen, as we are
informed, generally carry about their persons, and the same
unhappy circumstance had ensued which you have heard detailed in
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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 Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: seemed to them unjust. Well! if there is a Paradise my father is happy
in it now. As for me, I am loved as no man was ever loved yet. Madame
Firmiani gives me more than happiness; she has inspired me with a
delicacy of feeling I think I lacked. So I call her MY DEAR
CONSCIENCE,--a love-word which expresses certain secret harmonies
within our hearts. I find honesty profitable; I shall get rich in time
by myself. I've an industrial scheme in my head, and if it succeeds I
shall earn millions."
"Ah! my boy, you have your mother's soul," said the old man, his eyes
filling at the thought of his sister.
Just then, in spite of the distance between Octave's garret 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 Enchanted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum: casks, the form of a boy, who sat very still and watched him with a
look of astonishment upon his face.
"What are you doing up there?" asked the prince.
"Nothing," said the boy. "If I moved the least little bit this pile
of casks would topple over, and I should be thrown to the ground."
"Well," returned the prince, "what of it?"
But just then he glanced at the ground and saw why the boy did not
care to tumble down. For in the earth were planted many swords, with
their sharp blades pointing upward, and to fall upon these meant
serious wounds and perhaps death.
"Oh, ho!" cried Marvel; "I begin to understand. You are a prisoner."
The Enchanted Island of Yew |
