| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: word, something in the German style, manifold, formless, and
inexhaustible; a certain German potency and super-plenitude of
soul, which is not afraid to hide itself under the RAFFINEMENTS
of decadence--which, perhaps, feels itself most at ease there; a
real, genuine token of the German soul, which is at the same time
young and aged, too ripe and yet still too rich in futurity. This
kind of music expresses best what I think of the Germans: they
belong to the day before yesterday and the day after tomorrow--
THEY HAVE AS YET NO TODAY.
241. We "good Europeans," we also have hours when we allow
ourselves a warm-hearted patriotism, a plunge and relapse into
Beyond Good and Evil |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the cloathing
of many thousands.
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it
will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice
of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent
among us, sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to
avoid the expence than the shame, which would move tears and pity
in the most savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one
million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two
hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which
A Modest Proposal |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: singled out as a sacrifice: any word I might have said would have
been turned against you---"
"I have told you I don't blame you; all I ask you to understand
is that, after the use Bertha chose to make of me--after all that
her behaviour has since implied--it's impossible that you and I
should meet."
He continued to stand before her, in his dogged weakness. "Is
it--need it be? Mightn't there be circumstances---?" he checked
himself, slashing at the wayside weeds in a wider radius. Then he
began again: "Miss Bart, listen--give me a minute. If we're not
to meet again, at least let me have a hearing now. You say we
|
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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: " 'And besides that, you will give me bills for the amount made
payable to a third party (name left blank), fifteen bills of ten
thousand francs each.'
" 'Well, so long as it is acknowledged in writing that this is a
double----'
" 'No!' Gobseck broke in upon me. 'No! Why should I trust you any more
than you trust me?'
"I kept silence.
" 'And furthermore,' he continued, with a sort of good humor, 'you
will give me your advice without charging fees as long as I live, will
you not?'
Gobseck |
