| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: here! Hand it over, gossip, for in it I reckon I have found a treasury
of enjoyment and a mine of recreation. Here is Don Kyrieleison of
Montalvan, a valiant knight, and his brother Thomas of Montalvan,
and the knight Fonseca, with the battle the bold Tirante fought with
the mastiff, and the witticisms of the damsel Placerdemivida, and
the loves and wiles of the widow Reposada, and the empress in love
with the squire Hipolito- in truth, gossip, by right of its style it
is the best book in the world. Here knights eat and sleep, and die
in their beds, and make their wills before dying, and a great deal
more of which there is nothing in all the other books. Nevertheless, I
say he who wrote it, for deliberately composing such fooleries,
Don Quixote |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: ``I care not,'' replied Gurth, ``how soon he makes
a mark of me. Yesterday he left Wilfred, my young
master, in his blood. To-day he has striven to kill
before my face the only other living creature that
ever showed me kindness. By St Edmund, St
Dunstan, St Withold, St Edward the Confessor,
and every other Saxon saint in the calendar,'' (for
Cedric never swore by any that was not of Saxon
lineage, and all his household had the same limited
devotion,) ``I will never forgive him!''
``To my thinking now,'' said the Jester, who
Ivanhoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: Blondet; "for we all, like Newton, have our apple, which falls and
leads us to the spot where our faculties develop----"
"Yes," said de Marsay; "I will tell you about it."
Pretty women, political dandies, artists, old men, de Marsay's
intimate friends,--all settled themselves comfortably, each in his
favorite attitude, to look at the Minister. Need it be said that the
servants had left, that the doors were shut, and the curtains drawn
over them? The silence was so complete that the murmurs of the
coachmen's voices could be heard from the courtyard, and the pawing
and champing made by horses when asking to be taken back to their
stable.
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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 The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: but at the same instant he found himself encompassed by St.
George's happy personal art - a manner of which it was the essence
to conjure away false positions. It all took place in a moment.
Paul was conscious that he knew him now, conscious of his handshake
and of the very quality of his hand; of his face, seen nearer and
consequently seen better, of a general fraternising assurance, and
in particular of the circumstance that St. George didn't dislike
him (as yet at least) for being imposed by a charming but too
gushing girl, attractive enough without such danglers. No
irritation at any rate was reflected in the voice with which he
questioned Miss Fancourt as to some project of a walk - a general
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