| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: came to you; love as pure and true-hearted as may be on earth,
and as reverent as it was passionate; fond as a devoted woman's,
as a mother's love; a love so great indeed, that it was past the
bounds of reason. You played with it, and you committed a crime.
Every woman has a right to refuse herself to love which she feels
she cannot share; and if a man loves and cannot win love in
return, he is not to be pitied, he has no right to complain. But
with a semblance of love to attract an unfortunate creature cut
off from all affection; to teach him to understand happiness to
the full, only to snatch it from him; to rob him of his future of
felicity; to slay his happiness not merely today, but as long as
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: own; and also told him that this had been his reason for
delaying to adopt him, which he had meant to do, as his son; he
had desired that he might share his power, if he conquered, but
not be involved in his ruin, if he failed. "Take notice," he
added, "my boy, of these my last words, that you neither too
negligently forget, nor too zealously remember, that Caesar was
your uncle." By and by he heard a tumult amongst the soldiers
at the door, who were treating the senators with menaces for
preparing to withdraw; upon which, out of regard to their
safety, he showed himself once more in public, but not with a
gentle aspect and in a persuading manner as before; on the
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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 Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: The tangled curls from off his forehead, while
He on the running water gazed with strange and secret smile.
And soon the shepherd in rough woollen cloak
With his long crook undid the wattled cotes,
And from the stack a thin blue wreath of smoke
Curled through the air across the ripening oats,
And on the hill the yellow house-dog bayed
As through the crisp and rustling fern the heavy cattle strayed.
And when the light-foot mower went afield
Across the meadows laced with threaded dew,
And the sheep bleated on the misty weald,
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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 Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: in assorted sizes--I always send knitted slippers to the Old
Ladies' Home at Christmas--and now I sorted over the wools with a
grim determination not to think about the night before. But my
mind was not on my work: at the end of a half-hour I found I had
put a row of blue scallops on Eliza Klinefelter's lavender
slippers, and I put them away.
I got out the cuff-link and went with it to the pantry. Thomas
was wiping silver and the air was heavy with tobacco smoke. I
sniffed and looked around, but there was no pipe to be seen.
"Thomas," I said, "you have been smoking."
"No, ma'm." He was injured innocence itself. "It's on my coat,
The Circular Staircase |
