| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: Always, the lesson over, she went as far as the gate with the master,
and asked strict account of Louis' progress. So kindly and so winning
was her manner, that his tutors told her the truth, pointing out where
Louis was weak, so that she might help him in his lessons. Then came
dinner, and play after dinner, then a walk, and lessons were learned
till bedtime.
So their days went. It was a uniform but full life; work and
amusements left them not a dull hour in the day. Discouragement and
quarreling were impossible. The mother's boundless love made
everything smooth. She taught her little sons moderation by refusing
them nothing, and submission by making them see underlying Necessity
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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: The liberal party was a great worker of miracles in this respect. Its
dangerous journal, which had the wit to make itself as commonplace, as
calumniating, as credulous, and as sillily perfidious as every
audience made up the general masses, did in all probability as much
injury to private interests as it did to those of the Church.
Rigou flattered himself that he should find in a Bonapartist general
now laid on the shelf, in a son of the people raised from nothing by
the Revolution, a sound enemy to the Bourbons and the priests. But the
general, bearing in mind his private ambitions, so arranged matters as
to evade the visit of Monsieur and Madame Rigou when he first came to
Les Aigues.
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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 Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: were killed and many more injured.
Now, with my usual bad luck, I, who had gone out to shoot a few birds
for the pot--pauw, or bustard, I think they were--was returning across
this very plain to my old encampment in the kloof where Masapo had been
executed, and so ran into the fight just as it was beginning. I saw the
captain killed and the subsequent engagement. Indeed, as it happened, I
did more. Not knowing where to go or what to do, for I was quite alone,
I pulled up my horse behind a tree and waited till I could escape the
horrors about me; for I can assure anyone who may ever read these words
that it is a very horrible sight to see a thousand men engaged in fierce
and deadly combat. In truth, the fact that they had no spears, and
Child of Storm |
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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: shut off at will. No sooner was the staff raised than the aerial
vessel quietly detached itself from the rock to which it had been
drawn, and passed slowly forward in the direction of the mountains.
Branchspell sank below the horizon. The gathering mist blotted out
everything outside a radius of a few miles. The air grew cool and
fresh.
Soon the rock masses ceased on the, great, rising plain. Haunte
withdrew the shutter entirely, and the boat gathered full speed.
"You say that navigation among the mountains is difficult at night,"
exclaimed Maskull. "I would have thought it impossible."
Haunte grunted. "You will have to take risks, and think yourself
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