| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: grave----'
" 'As the grave,' repeated Beaudenord.
" 'That if one of your relatives were concerned in this secret, he
should not know it.'
" 'No.'
" 'Very well. Nucingen started to-night for Brussels. He must file his
schedule if he cannot arrange a settlement. This very morning Delphine
petitioned for the separation of her estate. You may still save your
fortune.'
" 'How?' faltered Godefroid; the blood turned to ice in his veins.
" 'Simply write to the Baron de Nucingen, antedating your letter 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 The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas: begs for life. If you plunge a dagger into your flesh, if
you insinuate a bullet into your brain, which the least
shock disorders, -- then certainly, you will suffer pain,
and you will repent quitting a life for a repose you have
bought at so dear a price."
"Yes; I know that there is a secret of luxury and pain in
death, as well as in life; the only thing is to understand
it."
"You have spoken truly, Maximilian; according to the care we
bestow upon it, death is either a friend who rocks us gently
as a nurse, or an enemy who violently drags the soul from
The Count of Monte Cristo |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: "Sir," said the doctor, again, "all these considerations are
foreign to me. I am a physician, and nothing but a physician,
and I can only tell you this: If you marry before three or four
years, you will be a criminal."
George broke out with a wild exclamation. "No sir, you are not
merely a physician! You are also a confessor! You are not
merely a scientist; and it is not enough for you that you observe
me as you would some lifeless thing in your laboratory, and say,
'You have this; science says that; now go along with you.' All
my existence depends upon you. It is your duty to listen to me,
because when you know everything you will understand me, and you
|
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 Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: snow, caked in heavy lumps on their branches. A red light flashes
in the dark, some one lights an aromatic cigarette. Joseph, a
bear driver, keeps running from sledge to sledge, up to his knees
in snow, and while putting things to rights he speaks about the
elk which are now going about on the deep snow and gnawing the
bark off the aspen trees, of the bears that are lying asleep in
their deep hidden dens, and his breath comes warm through the
opening in the sledge cover. All this came back to Nekhludoff's
mind; but, above all, the joyous sense of health, strength, and
freedom from care: the lungs breathing in the frosty air so
deeply that the fur cloak is drawn tightly on his chest, the fine
Resurrection |
