| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: If you were not such a charming simpleton, what a temptation
this would be to play the wicked coquette, and let you suppose
that somebody besides you has made love to me."
"Do you really like me best, Mary?" said Fred, turning eyes full
of affection on her, and trying to take her hand.
"I don't like you at all at this moment," said Mary, retreating,
and putting her hands behind her. "I only said that no mortal
ever made love to me besides you. And that is no argument
that a very wise man ever will," she ended, merrily.
"I wish you would tell me that you could not possibly ever think
of him," said Fred.
Middlemarch |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: months, thus earning the right to set eyes for a little while on
her family trotting around her in the main cabin and to assist at
the final exodus, the great journey undertaken at the end of a
thread.
When the summer heat arrives, in June, the young ones, probably
aided by their mother, pierce the walls of their cells, leave the
maternal tent, of which they know the secret outlet well, take the
air on the threshold for a few hours and then fly away, carried to
some distance by a funicular aeroplane, the first product of their
spinning-mill.
The elder Clotho remains behind, careless of this emigration which
The Life of the Spider |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: him right there, with his mouth wide open, staring
after me like I was crazy. Half a block away I
looked back and I seen him double over and slap his
knee and laugh loud, like he had hearn a big joke,
but what he was laughing at I never knew.
I was tickled. Tickled? Jest so tickled I was
plumb foolish with it. The doctor was alive after
all--I kept saying it over and over to myself--he
hadn't drownded nor blowed away. And I was go-
ing to hunt him up.
I had a little money. The perfessor had paid it
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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 Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: You prince of all the asses?
"To walk four miles through mud and rain,
To spend the night in smoking,
And then to find that it's in vain -
And I've to do it all again -
It's really TOO provoking!
"Don't talk!" he cried, as I began
To mutter some excuse.
"Who can have patience with a man
That's got no more discretion than
An idiotic goose?
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