| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: covered over all with gold, and, placing dead men's mouldering
bones therein, secured them with golden clasps. The other two he
smeared over with pitch and tar, but filled them with costly
stones and precious pearls, and all manner of aromatic sweet
perfume. He bound them fast with cords of hair, and called for
the noblemen who had blamed him for his manner of accosting the
men by the wayside. Before them he set the four caskets, that
they might appraise the value of these and those. They decided
that the golden ones were of greatest value, for, peradventure,
they contained kingly diadems and girdles. But those, that were
be-smeared with pitch and tar, were cheap and of paltry worth,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne: It might truly be said that between his assailants and himself
he had stretched a network of electricity which none could
pass with impunity.
Meanwhile, the exasperated Papuans had beaten a retreat paralysed
with terror. As for us, half laughing, we consoled and rubbed
the unfortunate Ned Land, who swore like one possessed.
But at this moment the Nautilus, raised by the last waves of the tide,
quitted her coral bed exactly at the fortieth minute fixed by
the Captain. Her screw swept the waters slowly and majestically.
Her speed increased gradually, and, sailing on the surface of the ocean,
she quitted safe and sound the dangerous passes of the Straits of Torres.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: of his companions, less agile than he, had been caught and beheaded.
From the tetrarch's balcony, the temple was visible through an opening
between two hills. The sun, now fully risen, shed a dazzling splendour
on its walls of snowy marble and the plates of purest gold that formed
its roof. The structure shone like a luminous mountain, and its
radiant purity indicated something almost superhuman, eclipsing even
its suggestion of opulence and pride.
Mannaeus stretched out his powerful arm towards Zion, and, with
clenched fist and his great body drawn to its full height, he launched
a bitter anathema at the city, with perfect faith that eventually his
curse must be effective.
Herodias |
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 Contrast by Royall Tyler: in this charitable pursuit. Oh! how delicious to go
and condole with the friends of some backsliding
sister, or to retire with some old dowager or maiden
aunt of the family, who love scandal so well that they
cannot forbear gratifying their appetite at the expense
of the reputation of their nearest relations! And then
to return full fraught with a rich collection of circum-
stances, to retail to the next circle of our acquaintance
under the strongest injunctions of secrecy,--ha, ha,
ha!--interlarding the melancholy tale with so many
doleful shakes of the head, and more doleful "Ah!
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