| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: from the first day. Every morning they go clattering down into the
plain, and there she sits on my back with her bugle at her mouth
and sounds the orders and puts them through the evolutions for an
hour or more; and it is too beautiful for anything to see those
ponies dissolve from one formation into another, and waltz about,
and break, and scatter, and form again, always moving, always
graceful, now trotting, now galloping, and so on, sometimes near
by, sometimes in the distance, all just like a state ball, you
know, and sometimes she can't hold herself any longer, but sounds
the 'charge,' and turns me loose! and you can take my word for it,
if the battalion hasn't too much of a start we catch up and go over
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: brush, there one, but each so telling that together they brought out a
new painting,--a painting steeped, as it were, in light. He worked
with such passionate ardor that the sweat rolled in great drops from
his bald brow; and his motions seemed to be jerked out of him with
such rapidity and impatience that the young Poussin fancied a demon,
encased with the body of this singular being, was working his hands
fantastically like those of a puppet without, or even against, the
will of their owner. The unnatural brightness of his eyes, the
convulsive movements which seemed the result of some mental
resistance, gave to this fancy of the youth a semblance of truth which
reacted upon his lively imagination. The old man worked on, muttering
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: the vent in the top with a smart sound of splashing. Hooven was
forced to turn his attention to it. Presley got his wheel under
way.
"I hef some converzations mit Herran," Hooven called after him.
"He doand doo ut bei hisseluf, den, Mist'r Derrick; ach, no. I
stay bei der rench to drive dose cettles."
He climbed back to his seat under the wagon umbrella, and, as he
started his team again with great cracks of his long whip, turned
to the painters still at work upon the sign and declared with
some defiance:
"Sieben yahr; yais, sir, seiben yahr I hef been on dis rench.
|
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 Purse by Honore de Balzac: set out for Italy.
"I am most unhappy," replied Hippolyte gravely.
"Nothing but a love affair can cause you grief. Money, glory,
respect--you lack nothing."
Insensibly the painter was led into confidences, and confessed
his love. The moment he mentioned the Rue de Suresnes, and a
young girl living on the fourth floor, "Stop, stop," cried
Souchet lightly. "A little girl I see every morning at the Church
of the Assumption, and with whom I have a flirtation. But, my
dear fellow, we all know her. The mother is a Baroness. Do you
really believe in a Baroness living up four flights of stairs?
|
