| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: early days of their tenancy, but at first only to recall a gay
confusion of unpacking, settling, arranging of books, and calling
to each other from remote corners of the house as treasure after
treasure of their habitation revealed itself to them. It was in
this particular connection that she presently recalled a certain
soft afternoon of the previous October, when, passing from the
first rapturous flurry of exploration to a detailed inspection of
the old house, she had pressed (like a novel heroine) a panel
that opened at her touch, on a narrow flight of stairs leading to
an unsuspected flat ledge of the roof--the roof which, from
below, seemed to slope away on all sides too abruptly for any but
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: the letter, "and when I find out what your object is, I will let you
know if you can see him. Corporal," he said to the gendarme,
"accompany this carriage, and take it close to that hut at the rear."
Monsieur de Chargeboeuf followed the gendarme and stopped his horses
behind a miserable cabin, built of mud and branches, surrounded by a
few fruit-trees, and guarded by pickets of infantry and cavalry.
It may be said that the majesty of war appeared here in all its
grandeur. From this height the lines of the two armies were visible in
the moonlight. After an hour's waiting, the time being occupied by the
incessant coming and going of the aides-de-camp, Duroc himself came
for Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne and the marquis, and made them enter
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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 Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: O that I had the Thracian Orpheus' harp,
For to awake out of the infernal shade
Those ugly devils of black Erebus,
That might torment the damned traitor's soul!
O that I had Amphion's instrument,
To quicken with his vital notes and tunes
The flinty joints of every stony rock,
By which the Scithians might be punished!
For, by the lightening of almighty Jove,
The Hun shall die, had he ten thousand lives:
And would to God he had ten thousand lives,
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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 Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: beside him. Tears were running down the cheeks of the tetrarch.
The lights began to flicker and die out. The guests departed, and at
last no one remained in the great hall save Antipas, who sat leaning
his head upon his hands, gazing at the head of Iaokanann; and Phanuel,
who stood in the centre of the largest nave and prayed aloud, with
uplifted arms.
At sunrise the two men who had been sent on a mission by Iaokanann
some time before, returned to the castle, bringing the answer so long
awaited and hoped for.
They whispered the message to Phanuel, who received it with rapture.
Then he showed them the lugubrious object, still resting on the
Herodias |
