| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: gallop.
21 THE COUNTESS DE WINTER
As they rode along, the duke endeavored to draw from D'Artagnan,
not all that had happened, but what D'Artagnan himself knew. By
adding all that he heard from the mouth of the young man to his
own remembrances, he was enabled to form a pretty exact idea of a
position of the seriousness of which, for the rest, the queen's
letter, short but explicit, gave him the clue. But that which
astonished him most was that the cardinal, so deeply interested
in preventing this young man from setting his foot in England,
had not succeeded in arresting him on the road. It was then,
The Three Musketeers |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Persuasion by Jane Austen: "I had not the smallest intention of asking him," said Elizabeth,
with affected carelessness, "but he gave so many hints;
so Mrs Clay says, at least."
"Indeed, I do say it. I never saw anybody in my life spell harder
for an invitation. Poor man! I was really in pain for him;
for your hard-hearted sister, Miss Anne, seems bent on cruelty."
"Oh!" cried Elizabeth, "I have been rather too much used to the game
to be soon overcome by a gentleman's hints. However, when I found
how excessively he was regretting that he should miss my father
this morning, I gave way immediately, for I would never really omit
an opportunity of bring him and Sir Walter together. They appear to
Persuasion |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: Places I love come back to me like music --
Mid-ocean, midnight, the waves buzz drowsily;
In the ship's deep churning the eerie phosphorescence
Is like the souls of people who were drowned at sea,
And I can hear a man's voice, speaking, hushed, insistent,
At midnight, in mid-ocean, hour on hour to me.
Old Tunes
As the waves of perfume, heliotrope, rose,
Float in the garden when no wind blows,
Come to us, go from us, whence no one knows;
So the old tunes float in my mind,
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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 All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: To make the even truth in pleasure flow:--
If thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower,
[To DIANA.]
Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower;
For I can guess that, by thy honest aid,
Thou kept'st a wife herself, thyself a maid.
Of that and all the progress, more and less,
Resolvedly more leisure shall express:
All yet seems well; and if it end so meet,
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.
[Flourish.]
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