| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: unstudied.
"But what a difference!" she answered smiling.
"You are right," he said; "we are born to stretch upward to the skies.
Our native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her
children."
His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no
reply.
"Come! let us go on," he said.
The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth
upon the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to
line, with the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently
Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: tremendous quintet grounded on the fundamental bass--and he is dying!
Mahomet is world-weary; he has exhausted everything. Now he craves to
die a god. Arabia, in fact, worships and prays to him, and we return
to the first melancholy strain (C minor) to which the curtain rose.
"Now, do you not discern," said Gambara, ceasing to play, and turning
to the Count, "in this picturesque and vivid music--abrupt, grotesque,
or melancholy, but always grand--the complete expression of the life
of an epileptic, mad for enjoyment, unable to read or write, using all
his defects as stepping-stones, turning every blunder and disaster
into a triumph? Did not you feel a sense of his fascination exerted
over a greedy and lustful race, in this overture, which is an epitome
Gambara |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: are cowards under the same conditions, as I should imagine.
LACHES: Very true.
SOCRATES: Now I was asking about courage and cowardice in general. And I
will begin with courage, and once more ask, What is that common quality,
which is the same in all these cases, and which is called courage? Do you
now understand what I mean?
LACHES: Not over well.
SOCRATES: I mean this: As I might ask what is that quality which is
called quickness, and which is found in running, in playing the lyre, in
speaking, in learning, and in many other similar actions, or rather which
we possess in nearly every action that is worth mentioning of arms, legs,
|
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 Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: "I don't know. I wish I had thrown something else than that!"
regretfully murmured Arabella.
"Lord! he's nobody, though you med think so. He used to drive old
Drusilla Fawley's bread-cart out at Marygreen, till he 'prenticed himself
at Alfredston. Since then he's been very stuck up, and always reading.
He wants to be a scholar, they say."
"Oh, I don't care what he is, or anything about 'n. Don't you think it,
my child!"
"Oh, don't ye! You needn't try to deceive us!
What did you stay talking to him for, if you didn't want un?
Whether you do or whether you don't, he's as simple as a child.
Jude the Obscure |
