| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: of age impose upon them.
July comes and gives me exactly what I wish for. While the new
inhabitants are twisting their ropes on the rosemaries in the
enclosure, one evening, by the last gleams of twilight, I discover
a splendid Spider, with a mighty belly, just outside my door. This
one is a matron; she dates back to last year; her majestic
corpulence, so exceptional at this season, proclaims the fact. I
know her for the Angular Epeira (Epeira angulata, WALCK.), clad in
grey and girdled with two dark stripes that meet in a point at the
back. The base of her abdomen swells into a short nipple on either
side.
The Life of the Spider |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: the plug-hole of a bath-tub, then the same with more
power to it, and some big coughs and snorts flung in,
the way a cow does that is choking to death; and
when the person has got to that point he is at his level
best, and can wake up a man that is in the next block
with a dipperful of loddanum in him, but can't wake
himself up although all that awful noise of his'n ain't
but three inches from his own ears. And that is the
curiosest thing in the world, seems to me. But you
rake a match to light the candle, and that little bit of a
noise will fetch him. I wish I knowed what was the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: direction, they hid in their clothes, and on the night of the next
full moon all left the valley. The Princess was followed only by a
single favourite, who did not know whither she was going.
They clambered through the cavity, and began to go down on the
other side. The Princess and her maid turned their eyes toward
every part, and seeing nothing to bound their prospect, considered
themselves in danger of being lost in a dreary vacuity. They
stopped and trembled. "I am almost afraid," said the Princess, "to
begin a journey of which I cannot perceive an end, and to venture
into this immense plain where I may be approached on every side by
men whom I never saw." The Prince felt nearly the same emotions,
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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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: the instinct of a watch-dog. If occasionally he complained, the head
clerk would smile with a jovial air, and say,--
"Ah, my boy! all is not rose at 'The Queen of Roses.' Larks don't fall
down roasted; you must run after them and catch them, and then you
must find some way to cook them."
The cook, a big creature from Picardy, took the best bits for herself,
and only spoke to Cesar when she wanted to complain of Monsieur and
Madame Ragon, who left her nothing to steal. Towards the end of the
first month this girl, who was forced to keep house of a Sunday,
opened a conversation with Cesar. Ursula with the grease washed off
seemed charming to the poor shop-boy, who, unless hindered by chance,
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
