| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: Ivanovitch, Paul Ivanovitch! What has happened?"
"What has happened?" cried Chichikov. "I have been ruined by an
accursed woman. That was because I could not do things in
moderation--I was powerless to stop myself in time, Satan tempted me,
and drove me from my senses, and bereft me of human prudence. Yes,
truly I have sinned, I have sinned! Yet how came I so to sin? To think
that a dvorianin--yes, a dvorianin--should be thrown into prison
without process or trial! I repeat, a dvorianin! Why was I not given
time to go home and collect my effects? Whereas now they are left with
no one to look after them! My dispatch-box, my dispatch-box! It
contained my whole property, all that my heart's blood and years of
Dead Souls |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: some time.
But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall
done; and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving to go into
it, not by a door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might
be no sign on the outside of my habitation.
APRIL 16. - I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to the
top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside.
This was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough,
and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could first
mount my wall.
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: they produced a change in my opinions, but in my conduct (as somebody
said, I can't recollect his name), in my conduct--never!--Well, well;
these good priests and your Mirabeaus and Vergniauds and the rest of
them, are mere stammering beginners compared with these orators of
mine.
" 'Often it is some girl in love, some gray-headed merchant on the
verge of bankruptcy, some mother with a son's wrong-doing to conceal,
some starving artist, some great man whose influence is on the wane,
and, for lack of money, is like to lose the fruit of all his labors--
the power of their pleading has made me shudder. Sublime actors such
as these play for me, for an audience of one, and they cannot deceive
Gobseck |
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 Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: that Duane who was a gunfighter some years back?"
"Yes," replied Duane.
"Never met him, and glad I didn't," said Bland, with a grim
humor. "So you got in trouble and had to go on the dodge? What
kind of trouble?"
"Had a fight."
"Fight? Do you mean gun-play?" questioned Bland. He seemed
eager, curious, speculative.
"Yes. It ended in gun-play, I'm sorry to say," answered Duane,
"Guess I needn't ask the son of Duane if he killed his man,"
went on Bland, ironically. "Well, I'm sorry you bucked against
The Lone Star Ranger |
