| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: of Persian cavalry received them bravely, but in face of the conjoint
horror of the attack they swerved, and some were cut down at once in
the river-bed, while others sought safety in flight. The Hellenes
followed close on the heels of the flying foe, and captured his camp.
Here the peltasts, not unnaturally, fell to pillaging, whereupon
Agesilaus formed a cordon of troops, round the property of friends and
foes alike, and so encamped.
Presently hearing that the enemy were in a state of disorder, the
result of every one holding his fellow responsible for what had
happened, he advanced without further stay on Sardis. Having arrived,
he fell to burning and ravaging the suburbs, while at the same time he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: for such ornaments, Amy," said Mrs. March, looking at the plump
little hand, with the band of sky-blue stones on the forefinger,
and the quaint guard formed of two tiny golden hands clasped
together.
"I'll try not to be vain," said Amy. "I don't think I like
it only because it's so pretty, but I want to wear it as the girl
in the story wore her bracelet, to remind me of something."
"Do you mean Aunt March?" asked her mother, laughing.
"No, to remind me not to be selfish." Amy looked so
earnest and sincere about it that her mother stopped laughing,
and listened respectfully to the little plan.
Little Women |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: front showed a sun-burnt little breast. In short, the attire of the
being called Mouche was even more startlingly simple than that of Pere
Fourchon.
"What a good-natured set of people they are here," thought Blondet;
"if a man frightened away the game of the people of the suburbs of
Paris, how their tongues would maul him!"
As he had never seen an otter, even in a museum, he was delighted with
this episode of his early walk. "Come," said he, quite touched when
the old man walked away without asking him for a compensation, "you
say you are a famous otter catcher. If you are sure there is an otter
down there--"
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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 Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: tree, alternatively damp and warm, full of scorching sand, traversed
by marshes, which leads to smiling groves clad with roses, where Love
and his retinue of pleasures disport themselves on carpets of soft
verdure. Often the witty man finds himself afflicted with a foolish
laugh which is his only answer to everything; his wit is, as it were,
suffocated beneath the icy pressure of his desires. It would not be
impossible for two beings of equal beauty, intelligence, and passion
to utter at first nothing but the most silly commonplaces, until
chance, a word, the tremor of a certain glance, the communication of a
spark, should have brought them to the happy transition which leads to
that flowery way in which one does not walk, but where one sways and
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
