| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: ce soir. Ce n'est pas dans vos habitudes. Mais il est tard.
Rentrons. Vous n'oubliez pas qu'au lever du soleil nous allons tous
e la chasse. Aux ambassadeurs de Cesar il faut faire tout honneur,
n'est-ce pas?
LE SECOND SOLDAT. Comme il a l'air sombre, le tetrarque.
LE PREMIER SOLDAT. Oui, il a l'air sombre.
HERODE. Salome, Salome, dansez pour moi. Je vous supplie de danser
pour moi. Ce soir je suis triste. Oui, je suis tres triste ce
soir. Quand je suis entre ici, j'ai glisse dans le sang, ce qui est
d'un mauvais presage, et j'ai entendu, je suis sur que j'ai entendu
un battement d'ailes dans l'air, un battement d'ailes gigantesques.
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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 Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas: manage it with two thousand livres."
"Good God!" cried she, "two thousand livres! Why, that is a
fortune!"
Porthos made a most significant grimace; Mme. Coquenard
understood it.
"I wished to know the detail," said she, "because, having
many relatives in business, I was almost sure of obtaining
things at a hundred per cent less than you would pay
yourself."
"Ah, ah!" said Porthos, "that is what you meant to say!"
"Yes, dear Monsieur Porthos. Thus, for instance, don't you
The Three Musketeers |
| 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: up her rheumatic limbs into her bed, and my little room in quite another
part of the house had been set ready, how reluctantly I used to leave
the friendly frogs and owls, and with my heart somewhere down in my shoes
lock the door to the garden behind me, and pass through the long series
of echoing south rooms full of shadows and ladders and ghostly pails
of painters' mess, and humming a tune to make myself believe I liked it,
go rather slowly across the brick-floored hall, up the creaking stairs,
down the long whitewashed passage, and with a final rush of panic whisk
into my room and double lock and bolt the door!
There were no bells in the house, and I used to take a great
dinner-bell to bed with me so that at least I might be able
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 Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: who have never been trained to hunt, go wild over the rabbits. They have
inherited the taste."
"Trained to hunt," said Tattine thoughtfully. "Do you mean that men just went
to work to teach them to be so cruel?"
"Well, I suppose in a way setters are natural hunters, Tattine, but then their
training has doubtless a great deal to do with it, but I want to tell you
something that I think will give you just a grain of comfort. I read the other
day that Sir John Franklin, the great Arctic explorer, who almost lost his
life in being attacked by some huge animal--it must have been a bear, I
think--says that the animal when he first gets you in his teeth gives you such
a shake that it paralyzes your nerves--this is, it benumbs all your feelings,
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