| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: their own ships and weapons, and fed and harnessed their own
horses; and the queens worked with their maid-servants, and
did all the business of the house, and spun, and wove, and
embroidered, and made their husbands' clothes and their own.
So that a man was honoured among them, not because he
happened to be rich, but according to his skill, and his
strength, and courage, and the number of things which he
could do. For they were but grown-up children, though they
were right noble children too; and it was with them as it is
now at school - the strongest and cleverest boy, though he be
poor, leads all the rest.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories by Mark Twain: Humboldt was out of the world and difficult to get to, and how slim
the regular bill of fare was. Sixteen years ago--it is a long time.
I was a little girl then, only fourteen. I never saw you, I lived
in Washoe. But Uncle Simmons ran across you every now and then,
all during those weeks that you and party were there working
your claim which was like the rest. The camp played out long
and long ago, there wasn't silver enough in it to make a button.
You never saw my husband, but he was there after you left, AND LIVED
IN THAT VERY LEAN-TO, a bachelor then but married to me now.
He often wishes there had been a photographer there in those days,
he would have taken the lean-to. He got hurt in the old Hal Clayton
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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 Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Perhaps my saying over bold appears,
Accounting less the pleasure of those eyes,
Whereon to look fulfilleth all desire.
But he, who is aware those living seals
Of every beauty work with quicker force,
The higher they are ris'n; and that there
I had not turn'd me to them; he may well
Excuse me that, whereof in my excuse
I do accuse me, and may own my truth;
That holy pleasure here not yet reveal'd,
Which grows in transport as we mount aloof.
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: chin, a thing which the Epeira does not understand; but, just
because of this talent, they are specialists. Their province is
the Domestic Bee.
Animals are a little like ourselves: they excel in an art only on
condition of specializing in it. The Epeira, who, being
omnivorous, is obliged to generalize, abandons scientific methods
and makes up for this by distilling a poison capable of producing
torpor and even death, no matter what the point attacked.
Recognizing the large variety of game, we wonder how the Epeira
manages not to hesitate amid those many diverse forms, how, for
instance, she passes from the Locust to the Butterfly, so different
The Life of the Spider |
