| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herodias by Gustave Flaubert: with her--in her tent! Eat her bread, baked in the ashes! Drink
curdled sheep's-milk! Kiss her dark cheeks--and forget me!"
The tetrarch had already forgotten her presence, it appeared. He paid
no further heed to her anger, but looked intently at a young girl who
had just stepped out upon the balcony of a house not far away. At her
side stood an elderly female slave, who held over the girl's head a
kind of parasol with a handle made of long, slender reeds. In the
middle of the rug spread upon the floor of the balcony stood a large
open travelling-hamper or basket, and girdles, veils, head-dresses,
and gold and silver ornaments were scattered about in confusion. At
intervals the young girl took one object or another in her hands, and
Herodias |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: Exeunt.
Mu. Faith we may put vp our Pipes and be gone
Nur. Honest goodfellowes: Ah put vp, put vp,
For well you know, this is a pitifull case
Mu. I by my troth, the case may be amended.
Enter Peter.
Pet. Musitions, oh Musitions,
Hearts ease, hearts ease,
O, and you will haue me liue, play hearts ease
Mu. Why hearts ease;
Pet. O Musitions,
Romeo and Juliet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Across the woods, and less from Indian craft
Than beelike instinct hiveward, found at length
The garden portals. Two great statues, Art
And Science, Caryatids, lifted up
A weight of emblem, and betwixt were valves
Of open-work in which the hunter rued
His rash intrusion, manlike, but his brows
Had sprouted, and the branches thereupon
Spread out at top, and grimly spiked the gates.
A little space was left between the horns,
Through which I clambered o'er at top with pain,
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: for the general course of my wicked life. When I was on the
desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I never had so
much as one thought of what would become of me, or one wish to God
to direct me whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger
which apparently surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as
cruel savages. But I was merely thoughtless of a God or a
Providence, acted like a mere brute, from the principles of nature,
and by the dictates of common sense only, and, indeed, hardly that.
When I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portugal captain,
well used, and dealt justly and honourably with, as well as
charitably, I had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts. When,
Robinson Crusoe |
