| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: His strength, increased a hundredfold by a moral depression impossible
to describe,--for such phenomena take place in a sphere inaccessible
to human observation,--insisted upon manifesting itself with
deplorable violence. Looking at him, you would have said that he was a
cold, dull man. Renown, science, future, life, prizes, all vanished.
" 'To win her love or die!' Such was the sentence Sarrasine pronounced
upon himself.
"He was so completely intoxicated that he no longer saw theatre,
audience, or actors, no longer heard the music. Nay, more, there was
no space between him and La Zambinella; he possessed her; his eyes,
fixed steadfastly upon her, took possession of her. An almost
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: It was indeed a paradise compared to the bleak forest, my former
residence, the rain-dropping branches, and dank earth. I ate my
breakfast with pleasure and was about to remove a plank to
procure myself a little water when I heard a step, and looking
through a small chink, I beheld a young creature, with a pail on
her head, passing before my hovel. The girl was young and of
gentle demeanour, unlike what I have since found cottagers and
farmhouse servants to be. Yet she was meanly dressed, a coarse
blue petticoat and a linen jacket being her only garb; her fair
hair was plaited but not adorned: she looked patient yet sad.
I lost sight of her, and in about a quarter of an hour she returned
Frankenstein |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: forest for them to dwell in or resort to. So it is with man. A
hundred years ago they sold bark in our streets peeled from our
own woods. In the very aspect of those primitive and rugged trees
there was, methinks, a tanning principle which hardened and
consolidated the fibers of men's thoughts. Ah! already I shudder
for these comparatively degenerate days of my native village,
when you cannot collect a load of bark of good thickness, and we
no longer produce tar and turpentine.
The civilized nations--Greece, Rome, England--have been sustained
by the primitive forests which anciently rotted where they stand.
They survive as long as the soil is not exhausted. Alas for human
Walking |
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 Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: emphasis on the words, "you stand first in my regard. Otherwise you
would not be here."
Then we began to walk up and down as we talked, and I must say that so
soon as my Spaniard had recovered himself he put forth the genuine
eloquence of the heart. It was not passion it breathed, but a
marvelous tenderness of feeling which he beautifully compared to the
divine love. His thrilling voice, which lent an added charm to
thoughts, in themselves so exquisite, reminded me of the nightingale's
note. He spoke low, using only the middle tones of a fine instrument,
and words flowed upon words with the rush of a torrent. It was the
overflow of the heart.
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