| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: looking obviously and scandalously not worth the money which passed
in the transaction: a small cardboard box with apparently nothing
inside, for instance, or one of those carefully closed yellow
flimsy envelopes, or a soiled volume in paper covers with a
promising title. Now and then it happened that one of the faded,
yellow dancing girls would get sold to an amateur, as though she
had been alive and young.
Sometimes it was Mrs Verloc who would appear at the call of the
cracked bell. Winnie Verloc was a young woman with a full bust, in
a tight bodice, and with broad hips. Her hair was very tidy.
Steady-eyed like her husband, she preserved an air of unfathomable
The Secret Agent |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: before your eyes, that almost every word, and the word "tyranny"
itself, would eventually seem unsuitable, or like a weakening and
softening metaphor--as being too human; and who should,
nevertheless, end by asserting the same about this world as you
do, namely, that it has a "necessary" and "calculable" course,
NOT, however, because laws obtain in it, but because they are
absolutely LACKING, and every power effects its ultimate
consequences every moment. Granted that this also is only
interpretation--and you will be eager enough to make this
objection?--well, so much the better.
23. All psychology hitherto has run aground on moral prejudices
Beyond Good and Evil |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: whose immediate consequence was the abrupt end to the long
and close friendship between us and our nearest neighbour.
His son was brought to the arbour and left there in the usual way,
and either he <84> must have happened on the critical
half hour after the coffee and before the Kreuzzeitung,
when my grandfather was accustomed to sleep, or he was more
courageous than the others and tried to talk, for very shortly,
playing as usual near at hand, I heard my grandfather's voice,
raised to an extent that made me stop in my game and quake, saying
with deliberate anger, "Hebe dich weg von mir, Sohn des Satans!"
Which was all the advice this particular young man got,
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: followed her, and shut the door behind him. "Well, I don't know
as I blame you. But, look here, old girl, have a heart! It's not
my fault. I know what you're grouching about - it's because I
haven't been around much lately. But you ought to know well enough
that I couldn't help it. Our game has been crimped lately at every
turn by that she-devil, the White Moll, and that dude pal of hers."
He laughed out again - in savage menace now. "I've been busy.
Understand, Bertha? It was either ourselves, or them. We've got
to go under - or they have. And we won't! I promise you that!
Things'll break a little better before long, and I'll make it up to
you."
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