| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: he had left on the quay. With the restive spirit, which is peculiar to
the nobility of the old school, in whom still survives the memory of
the League and the day of the Barricades (in 1588), he bewailed
himself in his cab, loudly enough to compromise him, over the change
that had come over the Court. "Formerly," he said to himself, "every
one could speak freely to the King of his own little affairs; the
nobles could ask him a favor, or for money, when it suited them, and
nowadays one cannot recover the money advanced for his service without
raising a scandal! By Heaven! the cross of Saint-Louis and the rank of
brigadier-general will not make good the three hundred thousand livres
I have spent, out and out, on the royal cause. I must speak to the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: did not understand. I think it would be well worth trying the
winter in Bournemouth; but I would only take the house by the month
- this after mature discussion. My leakage still pursues its
course; if I were only well, I have a notion to go north and get in
(if I could) at the inn at Kirkmichael, which has always smiled
upon me much. If I did well there, we might then meet and do what
should most smile at the time.
Meanwhile, of course, I must not move, and am in a rancid box here,
feeling the heat a great deal, and pretty tired of things.
Alexander did a good thing of me at last; it looks like a mixture
of an aztec idol, a lion, an Indian Rajah, and a woman; and
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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 Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: divinely preserved and still fresh. The mistress of our youth revives,
and strokes the young man's hair. Our heart, too full, overflows; we
see the flowery banks of the torrent of love. Every burning bush we
ever knew blazes afresh, and repeats the heavenly words we once heard
and understood. The voice rolls on; it embraces in its rapid turns
those fugitive horizons, and they shrink away; they vanish, eclipsed
by newer and deeper joys--those of an unrevealed future, to which the
fairy points as she returns to the blue heaven."
"And you," retorted Cataneo, "have you never seen the direct ray of a
star opening the vistas above; have you never mounted on that beam
which guides you to the sky, to the heart of the first causes which
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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 Dracula by Bram Stoker: God pity me! Look down on a poor soul in worse than mortal peril.
And in mercy pity those to whom she is dear!" Then she began to rub
her lips as though to cleanse them from pollution.
As she was telling her terrible story, the eastern sky began to quicken,
and everything became more and more clear. Harker was still and quiet.
But over his face, as the awful narrative went on, came a grey look
which deepened and deepened in the morning light, till when the first red
streak of the coming dawn shot up, the flesh stood darkly out against
the whitening hair.
We have arranged that one of us is to stay within call of the unhappy
pair till we can meet together and arrange about taking action.
Dracula |
