| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: them, he and Samuel, abroad.
SA1 9:27 And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel
said to Saul, Bid the servant pass on before us, (and he passed on), but
stand thou still a while, that I may shew thee the word of God.
SA1 10:1 Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it upon his head,
and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee
to be captain over his inheritance?
SA1 10:2 When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find
two men by Rachel's sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and
they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found:
and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: He put the bill that he meant to take with him in an envelope, and
helped himself to five hundred thousand francs in French and English
bank-notes from the safe, which he locked. Then he put everything in
order, lit a candle, blew out the lamp, took up his hat and umbrella,
and went out sedately, as usual, to leave one of the two keys of the
strong room with Madame de Nucingen, in the absence of her husband the
Baron.
"You are in luck, M. Castanier," said the banker's wife as he entered
the room; "we have a holiday on Monday; you can go into the country,
or to Soizy."
"Madame, will you be so good as to tell your husband that the bill of
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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 The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: oval panels, in each of which Van Huysum had carved a grotesque mask,
had been respected and allowed to keep the brown tones of the native
Dutch oak.
In the four corners of this parlor were truncated columns, supporting
candelabra exactly like those on the mantle-shelf; and a round table
stood in the middle of the room. Along the walls card-tables were
symmetrically placed. On two gilded consoles with marble slabs there
stood, at the period when this history begins, two glass globes filled
with water, in which, above a bed of sand and shells, red and gold and
silver fish were swimming about. The room was both brilliant and
sombre. The ceiling necessarily absorbed the light and reflected none.
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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 Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: merely intellectual part of it), consists in this accuracy. A well-
educated gentleman may not know many languages,--may not be able to
speak any but his own,--may have read very few books. But whatever
language he knows, he knows precisely; whatever word he pronounces,
he pronounces rightly; above all, he is learned in the PEERAGE of
words; knows the words of true descent and ancient blood, at a
glance, from words of modern canaille; remembers all their ancestry,
their intermarriages, distant relationships, and the extent to which
they were admitted, and offices they held, among the national
noblesse of words at any time, and in any country. But an
uneducated person may know, by memory, many languages, and talk them
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