| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from All's Well That Ends Well by William Shakespeare: And make this haste as your own good proceeding,
Strengthen'd with what apology you think
May make it probable need.
HELENA.
What more commands he?
PAROLLES.
That, having this obtain'd, you presently
Attend his further pleasure.
HELENA.
In everything I wait upon his will.
PAROLLES.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: compared in strength with that of a passion which may cease on the
morrow, killed by death or want? When they talked together of their
poverty each felt the necessity of deceiving the other, and they
fastened with mutual ardor on the slightest hope.
One night Ginevra woke and missed Luigi from her side. She rose in
terror. A faint light shining on the opposite wall of the little
court-yard revealed to her that her husband was working in his study
at night. Luigi was now in the habit of waiting till his wife was
asleep, and then going up to his garret to write. Four o'clock struck.
Ginevra lay down again, and pretended to sleep. Presently Luigi
returned, overcome with fatigue and drowsiness. Ginevra looked sadly
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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 Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon: assume the human nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin
Mary, so that there are two natures, the divine and the human,
inseparably enjoined in one Person, one Christ, true God and
true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was
crucified, dead, and buried, that He might reconcile the
Father unto us, and be a sacrifice, not only for original
guilt, but also for all actual sins of men
He also descended into hell, and truly rose again the third
day; afterward He ascended into heaven that He might sit on
the right hand of the Father, and forever reign and have
dominion over all creatures, and sanctify them that believe in
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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 Dracula by Bram Stoker: men were able to supplement the paucity of the written words
with a few more details. These were, I shortly found,
connected almost solely with the dusty nature of the job,
and the consequent thirst engendered in the operators.
On my affording an opportunity, through the medium of the
currency of the realm, of the allaying, at a later period,
this beneficial evil, one of the men remarked,
"That `ere `ouse, guv'nor, is the rummiest I ever
was in. Blyme! But it ain't been touched sence a hundred years.
There was dust that thick in the place that you might have slep'
on it without `urtin' of yer bones. An' the place was that
Dracula |
