| 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: "Awake and follow me!"
A withered woman took my hand in hers; its icy coldness crept through
every nerve. The bones of her face showed plainly through the sallow,
almost olive-tinted wrinkles of the skin. The shrunken, ice-cold old
woman wore a black robe, which she trailed in the dust, and at her
throat there was something white, which I dared not examine. I could
scarcely see her wan and colorless eyes, for they were fixed in a
stare upon the heavens. She drew me after her along the aisles,
leaving a trace of her presence in the ashes that she shook from her
dress. Her bones rattled as she walked, like the bones of a skeleton;
and as we went I heard behind me the tinkling of a little bell, a
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: their disadvantage? But they had no other thought than to assist;
and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved (as they supposed)
in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea and the
weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam
ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but
in pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from
the drenching of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain
valorous Samoans succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with
a line; but it was speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts
proved unavailing, the strongest adventurers being cast back again
by the bursting seas. Thenceforth, all through that day and night,
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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 In Darkest England and The Way Out by General William Booth: consideration but of persevering trial.
Some of these difficulties at first sight appear rather serious.
Let us look at them.
Objection I.--It is suggested that the class of people for whose
benefit the Scheme is designed would not avail themselves of it.
When the feast was prepared and the invitation had gone forth,
it is said that the starving multitudes would not come; that though
labour was offered them in the City, or prepared for them on the Farm,
they would prefer to rot in their present miseries rather than avail
themselves of the benefit provided.
In order to gather the opinions of those most concerned, we consulted
In Darkest England and The Way Out |
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 Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: her work, my mistress pleads a slight illness, lets him go to bed
alone, and comes to doctor her malady in the room where the chest is.
On the morrow, when my jeweller is at his forge, I depart, and as the
house has one exit on to the bridge, and another into the street, I
always come to the door when the husband is not, on the pretext of
speaking to him of his suits, which commence joyfully and heartily,
and I never let them come to an end. It is an income from cuckoldom,
seeing that in the minor expenses and loyal costs of the proceedings,
he spends as much as on the horses in his stable. He loves me well, as
all good cuckolds should love the man who aids them, to plant,
cultivate, water and dig the natural garden of Venus, and he does
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
