| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: If so, the world will hold thee in disdain,
Sith in thy pride so fair a hope is slain.
'So in thyself thyself art made away;
A mischief worse than civil home-bred strife, 764
Or theirs whose desperate hands themselves do slay,
Or butcher-sire that reeves his son of life.
Foul-cankering rust the hidden treasure frets,
But gold that's put to use more gold begets.' 768
'Nay then,' quoth Adon, 'you will fall again
Into your idle over-handled theme;
The kiss I gave you is bestow'd in vain,
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: "It is singular," said Mareschal to Ratcliffe, "that four
horsemen and a female prisoner should have passed through the
country without leaving the slightest trace of their passage.
One would think they had traversed the air, or sunk through the
ground."
"Men may often," answered Ratcliffe, "arrive at the knowledge of
that which is, from discovering that which is not. We have now
scoured every road, path, and track leading from the castle, in
all the various points of the compass, saving only that intricate
and difficult pass which leads southward down the Westburn, and
through the morasses."
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Mount. Many a morning hath he there beene seene,
With teares augmenting the fresh mornings deaw,
Adding to cloudes, more cloudes with his deepe sighes,
But all so soone as the all-cheering Sunne,
Should in the farthest East begin to draw
The shadie Curtaines from Auroras bed,
Away from light steales home my heauy Sonne,
And priuate in his Chamber pennes himselfe,
Shuts vp his windowes, lockes faire day-light out,
And makes himselfe an artificiall night:
Blacke and portendous must this humour proue,
Romeo and Juliet |
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 Father Goriot by Honore de Balzac: queenly glance and curve of her throat; "give it back to me
unsullied. And now, go; leave me. We women also have our battles
to fight."
"And if you should ever need some one who would gladly set a
match to a train for you----"
"Well?" she asked.
He tapped his heart, smiled in answer to his cousin's smile, and
went.
It was five o'clock, and Eugene was hungry; he was afraid lest he
should not be in time for dinner, a misgiving which made him feel
that it was pleasant to be borne so quickly across Paris. This
Father Goriot |
