| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: Bright and deep and cold as Arctic air, the soul of the man lay
tranquil beneath. He looked at the furnace-tender as he had
looked at a rare mosaic in the morning; only the man was the
more amusing study of the two.
"Are you answered? Why, May, look at him! 'De profundis
clamavi.' Or, to quote in English, 'Hungry and thirsty, his
soul faints in him.' And so Money sends back its answer into
the depths through you, Kirby! Very clear the answer, too!--I
think I remember reading the same words somewhere: washing your
hands in Eau de Cologne, and saying, 'I am innocent of the blood
of this man. See ye to it!'"
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: mystical exaltation of the faithful reacts upon each of them; the
feebler are no doubt borne upward by the waves of this ocean of faith
and love. Prayer, a power electrical, draws our nature above itself.
This involuntary union of all wills, equally prostrate on the earth,
equally risen into heaven, contains, no doubt, the secret of the magic
influences wielded by the chants of the priests, the harmonies of the
organ, the perfumes and the pomps of the altar, the voices of the
crowd and its silent contemplations. Consequently, we need not be
surprised to see in the middle-ages so many tender passions begun in
churches after long ecstasies,--passions ending often in little
sanctity, and for which women, as usual, were the ones to do penance.
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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 Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: Avatar and its seal--the redness and the horror of blood. There were
sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the
pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and
especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which
shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men.
And the whole seizure, progress and termination of the disease,
were the incidents of half an hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious.
When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his
presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the
knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep
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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 Lesson of the Master by Henry James: great height in two arms, with a circular sweep of the most
charming effect - at the threshold of the door which, from the long
bright gallery, overlooked the immense lawn. Three gentlemen, on
the grass, at a distance, sat under the great trees, while the
fourth figure showed a crimson dress that told as a "bit of colour"
amid the fresh rich green. The servant had so far accompanied Paul
Overt as to introduce him to this view, after asking him if he
wished first to go to his room. The young man declined that
privilege, conscious of no disrepair from so short and easy a
journey and always liking to take at once a general perceptive
possession of a new scene. He stood there a little with his eyes
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