| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: and curled crests, and played with their
forked tongues. He had unbuttoned his
waistcoat, and as cleverly as a fish-
woman handles her eels, let out several
snakes and adders, warmed by his breast,
and spread them on the table. He took off
his hat, and others of different sizes and
lengths twisted before me; some of them,
when he unbosomed his shirt, returned to
the genial temperature of his skin; and
some curled around the legs of the table,
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: a house in the Vieille rue du Temple. Mariette had begun her studies
when she was ten years old; she was now just sixteen. Alas! for want
of becoming clothes, her beauty, hidden under a coarse shawl, dressed
in calico, and ill-kept, could only be guessed by those Parisians who
devote themselves to hunting grisettes and the quest of beauty in
misfortune, as she trotted past them with mincing step, mounted on
iron pattens. Philippe fell in love with Mariette. To Mariette,
Philippe was commander of the dragoons of the Guard, a staff-officer
of the Emperor, a young man of twenty-seven, and above all, the means
of proving herself superior to Florentine by the evident superiority
of Philippe over Giroudeau. Florentine and Giroudeau, the one to
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Child of Storm by H. Rider Haggard: "And therefore is now one who can pay any debt that he owes, Umbezi," I
said, taking a pull at the "squareface" and looking at him over the top
of the pannikin.
"Doubtless he can, Macumazahn, and, between you and me, that is the real
reason why I--or rather Masapo--was so anxious to get those guns. They
were not for hunting, as he told you by the messenger, or for war, but
to protect us against Saduko, in case he should attack. Well, now I
hope we shall be able to hold our own."
"You and Masapo must teach your people to use them first, Umbezi. But I
expect Saduko has forgotten all about both of you now that he is the
husband of a princess of the royal blood. Tell me, how goes it with
Child of Storm |
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 Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: strength, daring, severity, and elevation than a nineteenth-
century Frenchman could have done--owing to the circumstance that
we Germans are as yet nearer to barbarism than the French;--
perhaps even the most remarkable creation of Richard Wagner is
not only at present, but for ever inaccessible, incomprehensible,
and inimitable to the whole latter-day Latin race: the figure of
Siegfried, that VERY FREE man, who is probably far too free, too
hard, too cheerful, too healthy, too ANTI-CATHOLIC for the taste
of old and mellow civilized nations. He may even have been a sin
against Romanticism, this anti-Latin Siegfried: well, Wagner
atoned amply for this sin in his old sad days, when--anticipating
Beyond Good and Evil |
