| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: under his grasp, and Ernest might be dead at his feet. This idea made me
shudder and recalled me to action. I started up and resolved to return
to Geneva with all possible speed.
There were no horses to be procured, and I must return by the lake;
but the wind was unfavourable, and the rain fell in torrents.
However, it was hardly morning, and I might reasonably hope to
arrive by night. I hired men to row and took an oar myself,
for I had always experienced relief from mental torment in bodily exercise.
But the overflowing misery I now felt, and the excess of agitation that
I endured rendered me incapable of any exertion. I threw down the oar,
and leaning my head upon my hands, gave way to every gloomy idea that arose.
Frankenstein |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens: rest in peace, nor fix my thoughts upon my prayers, otherways than
that I knew mistress was comfortable in her bed this night; by
rights she ought to have been there, hours ago.'
'You're talkative, mistress,' said Varden, pulling off his
greatcoat, and looking at her askew.
'Taking the hint, sir,' cried Miggs, with a flushed face, 'and
thanking you for it most kindly, I will make bold to say, that if I
give offence by having consideration for my mistress, I do not ask
your pardon, but am content to get myself into trouble and to be in
suffering.'
Here Mrs Varden, who, with her countenance shrouded in a large
Barnaby Rudge |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: with the knife and scalpel of incredulity.
Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the
matter up, though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that
year, one of the physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by
the arm, as if to question him, in Bianchon's presence.
"What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he.
"I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom
the Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said
Desplein.
The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon.
"Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!--He went to mass,"
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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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: learning, and regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to
that which man would pay to angelic nature. And yet it fills me
with wonder that in almost all countries the most ancient poets are
considered as the best; whether it be that every other kind of
knowledge is an acquisition greatly attained, and poetry is a gift
conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation
surprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent
which it received by accident at first; or whether, as the province
of poetry is to describe nature and passion, which are always the
same, the first writers took possession of the most striking
objects for description and the most probable occurrences for
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