| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: murder of my wife. The imbeciles! They think that I killed my
wife on the 5th of October. It was long before that that I
immolated her, just as they all kill now. Understand well that
in our society there is an idea shared by all that woman procures
man pleasure (and vice versa, probably, but I know nothing of
that, I only know my own case). Wein, Weiber und Gesang. So say
the poets in their verses: Wine, women, and song!
"If it were only that! Take all the poetry, the painting, the
sculpture, beginning with Pouschkine's 'Little Feet,' with 'Venus
and Phryne,' and you will see that woman is only a means of
enjoyment. That is what she is at Trouba,* at Gratchevka, and in
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: times acquire a relish for the dreadful when that is
amalgamated with a little triumph, is marvellous.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE SAME NIGHT -- THE FIR PLANTATION
AMONG the multifarious duties which Bathsheba had
voluntarily imposed upon herself by dispensing with the
services of a bailiff, was the particular one of looking
round the homestead before going to bed, to see that
all was right and safe for the night. Gabriel had almost
constantly preceded her in this tour every evening,
watching her affairs as carefully as any specially appointed
Far From the Madding Crowd |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Magic of Oz by L. Frank Baum: "What do we need a raft for, Cap'n?"
"Why, to take us to the island. We can't walk under water, in
the river bed, as the Glass Cat did, so we must float atop the water."
"Can you make a raft, Cap'n Bill?"
"O' course, Trot, if you give me time."
The little girl sat down on a log and gazed at the Island of
the Magic Flower. Nothing else seemed to grow on the tiny isle.
There was no tree, no shrub, no grass, even, as far as she could
make out from that distance. But the gold pot glittered in the
rays of the sun, and Trot could catch glimpses of glowing colors
above it, as the Magic Flower changed from one sort to another.
The Magic of Oz |
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 Critias by Plato: settled them in a part of the island, which I will describe. Looking
towards the sea, but in the centre of the whole island, there was a plain
which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and very fertile.
Near the plain again, and also in the centre of the island at a distance of
about fifty stadia, there was a mountain not very high on any side. In
this mountain there dwelt one of the earth-born primeval men of that
country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they
had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached
womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her
and had intercourse with her, and breaking the ground, inclosed the hill in
which she dwelt all round, making alternate zones of sea and land larger
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