| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: of a young girl than in the presence of the rising of a star.
The possibility of hurting should inspire an augmentation of respect.
The down on the peach, the bloom on the plum, the radiated crystal of
the snow, the wing of the butterfly powdered with feathers, are coarse
compared to that chastity which does not even know that it is chaste.
The young girl is only the flash of a dream, and is not yet a statue.
Her bed-chamber is hidden in the sombre part of the ideal.
The indiscreet touch of a glance brutalizes this vague penumbra.
Here, contemplation is profanation.
We shall, therefore, show nothing of that sweet little flutter
of Cosette's rising.
Les Miserables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: (May those that have seen thee declare if I err)
That not all the oysters in Britain contain
A pearl pure as thou art.
Let some one explain,--
Who may know more than I of the intimate life
Of the pearl with the oyster,--why yet in his wife,
In despite of her beauty--and most when he felt
His soul to the sense of her loveliness melt--
Lord Alfred miss'd something he sought for: indeed,
The more that he miss'd it the greater the need;
Till it seem'd to himself he could willingly spare
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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 The Koran: Book!
Verily, this Koran relates to the people of Israel most of that
whereon they do dispute; and, verily, it is a guidance and a mercy
to the believers. Verily, thy Lord decides between them by His
judgment, for He is mighty, knowing. Rely thou then upon God,
verily, thou art standing on obvious truth. Verily, thou canst not
make the dead to hear, and thou canst not make the deaf to hear the
call when they turn their backs on thee; nor art thou a guide to the
blind, out of their error: thou canst only make to hear such as
believe in our signs, and such as are resigned.
And when the sentence falls upon them we will bring forth a beast
The Koran |
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 Youth by Joseph Conrad: her counter high in the air, she seemed to me to throw
up, like an appeal, like a defiance, like a cry to the clouds
without mercy, the words written on her stern: 'Judea,
London. Do or Die.'
"O youth! The strength of it, the faith of it, the
imagination of it! To me she was not an old rattle-trap
carting about the world a lot of coal for a freight--to
me she was the endeavor, the test, the trial of life. I
think of her with pleasure, with affection, with regret--
as you would think of someone dead you have loved. I
shall never forget her. . . . Pass the bottle.
Youth |
