| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: disturbed us. This death-cry struck me with such terror that Felipe
carried me half-fainting to my bed. But don't be alarmed! Though this
augury of evil still resounds in my soul, I am quite myself this
morning. As soon as I was up, I went to Felipe, and, kneeling before
him, my eyes fixed on his, his hands clasped in mine, I said to him:--
"My love, I am a child, and Renee may be right after all. It may be
only your love that I love in you; but at least I can assure you that
this is the one feeling of my heart, and that I love you as it is
given me to love. But if there be aught in me, in my lightest thought
or deed, which jars on your wishes or conception of me, I implore you
to tell me, to say what it is. It will be a joy to me to hear you and
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: left to either, and we stood opposite, staring on each other sadly.
But James showed himself a ready hypocrite. "My daughter," says he,
"is this how my cousin learned you to behave? Mr. David has lost a new
friend, and we should first condole with him on his bereavement."
"Troth, sir," said I, turning to him in a kind of anger, "I can make no
such great faces. His death is as blithe news as ever I got."
"It's a good soldier's philosophy," says James. "'Tis the way of
flesh, we must all go, all go. And if the gentleman was so far from
your favour, why, very well! But we may at least congratulate you on
your accession to your estates."
"Nor can I say that either," I replied, with the same heat. "It is a
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexander's Bridge by Willa Cather: She felt the strength leap in the arms
that held her so lightly.
"Try him again, Hilda. Try him once again."
She looked up into his eyes, and hid her
face in her hands.
CHAPTER X
On Tuesday afternoon a Boston lawyer,
who had been trying a case in Vermont,
was standing on the siding at White River Junction
when the Canadian Express pulled by on its
northward journey. As the day-coaches at
Alexander's Bridge |
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 Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: From Valdigrieve past the Buondelmonte.
The city's malady hath ever source
In the confusion of its persons, as
The body's, in variety of food:
And the blind bull falls with a steeper plunge,
Than the blind lamb; and oftentimes one sword
Doth more and better execution,
Than five. Mark Luni, Urbisaglia mark,
How they are gone, and after them how go
Chiusi and Sinigaglia; and 't will seem
No longer new or strange to thee to hear,
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
