| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran: He said, 'Do ye know what ye did with Joseph and his brother,
while ye were ignorant?'
They said, 'Art thou then indeed Joseph?' He said, 'I am Joseph, and
this is my brother; God has been gracious towards us. Verily, whoso
fears God and is patient,- verily, God wastes not the hire of those
who do good!'
They said, 'By God! God has chosen thee over us; and we indeed
were sinners.'
He said, 'No reproach against you to-day! God will pardon you, for
He is the most merciful of the merciful. Take this my shirt, and throw
it over the face of my father, he will become able to see; and bring
The Koran |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: work of some supernatural brush. The picture represented Adonis
stretched out on a lion's skin. The lamp, in an alabaster vase,
hanging in the centre of the boudoir, cast upon the canvas a soft
light which enabled us to grasp all the beauties of the picture.
"Does such a perfect creature exist?" she asked me, after examining
attentively, and not without a sweet smile of satisfaction, the
exquisite grace of the outlines, the attitude, the color, the hair, in
fact everything.
"He is too beautiful for a man," she added, after such a scrutiny as
she would have bestowed upon a rival.
Ah! how sharply I felt at that moment those pangs of jealousy in which
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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 Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum: graceful courtesy. "But, my children--tell me, I beg of you--where
are my children?" and she clasped her hands in anxious entreaty.
"Don't worry," advised Billina, pecking at a tiny bug that was
crawling over the chair back. "Just at present they are out of
mischief and perfectly safe, for they can't even wiggle."
"What mean you, O kindly stranger?" asked the Queen, striving to
repress her anxiety.
"They're enchanted," said Billina, "just as you have been--all, that
is, except the little fellow Dorothy picked out. And the chances are
that they have been good boys and girls for some time, because they
couldn't help it."
Ozma 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 The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling: though of course he had heard of him.
"Mowgli, the Frog. Man-cub they call me! Mark my tra-il!"
The last words were shrieked as he was being swung through the
air, but Rann nodded and rose up till he looked no bigger than a
speck of dust, and there he hung, watching with his telescope eyes
the swaying of the treetops as Mowgli's escort whirled along.
"They never go far," he said with a chuckle. "They never do
what they set out to do. Always pecking at new things are the
Bandar-log. This time, if I have any eye-sight, they have pecked
down trouble for themselves, for Baloo is no fledgling and
Bagheera can, as I know, kill more than goats."
The Jungle Book |
