The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: not; but what I hate, that do I.
ROM 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law
that it is good.
ROM 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me.
ROM 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good
thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is
good I find not.
ROM 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would
not, that I do.
ROM 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Don Quixote by Miquel de Cervantes: was still preserved, had a mind to continue his discourse, and would
have done so had not Sancho interposed with his smartness; for he,
seeing his master pause, took the lead, saying, "My lord Don Quixote
of La Mancha, who once was called the Knight of the Rueful
Countenance, but now is called the Knight of the Lions, is a gentleman
of great discretion who knows Latin and his mother tongue like a
bachelor, and in everything that he deals with or advises proceeds
like a good soldier, and has all the laws and ordinances of what
they call combat at his fingers' ends; so you have nothing to do but
to let yourselves be guided by what he says, and on my head be it if
it is wrong. Besides which, you have been told that it is folly to
Don Quixote |
The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: heard a voice within me promising me fame.
"Music seemed to me in its infancy, and I think so still. All that is
left to us of musical effort before the seventeenth century, proves to
me that early musicians knew melody only; they were ignorant of
harmony and its immense resources. Music is at once a science and an
art. It is rooted in physics and mathematics, hence it is a science;
inspiration makes it an art, unconsciously utilizing the theorems of
science. It is founded in physics by the very nature of the matter it
works on. Sound is air in motion. The air is formed of constituents
which, in us, no doubt, meet with analogous elements that respond to
them, sympathize, and magnify them by the power of the mind. Thus the
Gambara |
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 Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: was supposed this Dedicatory Epistle might
pass for some imitation of the same kind, and
thus putting enquirers upon a false scent, induce
them to believe they had before them the
work of some new candidate for their favour.
After a considerable part of the work had
been finished and printed, the Publishers, who
pretended to discern in it a germ of popularity,
remonstrated strenuously against its appearing
as an absolutely anonymous production, and
contended that it should have the advantage of
Ivanhoe |