| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: And bids it leap from thence, where it may find
Some purer chest, to close so pure a mind.
Frantic with grief thus breathes she forth her spite
Against the unseen secrecy of night:
'O comfort-killing night, image of hell!
Dim register and notary of shame!
Black stage for tragedies and murders fell!
Vast sin-concealing chaos! nurse of blame!
Blind muffled bawd! dark harbour for defame!
Grim cave of death, whispering conspirator
With close-tongued treason and the ravisher!
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: We have an analogous case in the orbicular muscles being almost
always contracted in some slight degree, even during a gentle
crying-fit, when there can be no distension of the vessels
and no uncomfortable sensation excited within the eyes.
Moreover, when complex actions or movements have long been performed
in strict association together, and these are from any cause at first
voluntarily and afterwards habitually checked, then if the proper exciting
conditions occur, any part of the action or movement which is least under
the control of the will, will often still be involuntarily performed.
The secretion by a gland is remarkably free from the influence of
the will; therefore, when with the advancing age of the individual,
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: your advice. So tell me now, if possible, about the knight of
whom you have spoken so much to me: what sort of a man is he, and
of what parentage? If he is suited to become my mate, and
provided he be so disposed, I promise you to make him my husband
and lord of my domain. But he will have to act in such a way
that no one can reproach me by saying: `This is she who took him
who killed her lord.'" "In God's name, lady, so shall it be.
You will have the gentlest, noblest, and fairest lord who ever
belonged to Abel's line." "What is his name?" "My lord Yvain."
"Upon my word, if he is King Urien's son he is of no mean birth,
but very noble, as I well know." "Indeed, my lady, you say the
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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 An Old Maid by Honore de Balzac: sumptuary laws, which made it their business to contradict the laws of
anatomy. In Paris people eat with their teeth, and trifle with their
pleasure; in the provinces things are done naturally, and interest is
perhaps rather too much concentrated on the grand and universal means
of existence to which God has condemned his creatures.
It was at the end of the first course that Mademoiselle Cormon made
the most celebrated of her "speeches"; it was talked about for fully
two years, and is still told at the gatherings of the lesser
bourgeoisie whenever the topic of her marriage comes up.
The conversation, becoming lively as the penultimate entree was
reached, had turned naturally on the affair of the theatre and the
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