| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: across a boat, tested the wires to make sure the fault was not
behind us, and started picking up at 11. Everything worked
admirably, and about 2 P.M., in came the fault. There is no doubt
the cable was broken by coral fishers; twice they have had it up to
their own knowledge.
'Many men have been ashore to-day and have come back tipsy, and the
whole ship is in a state of quarrel from top to bottom, and they
will gossip just within my hearing. And we have had, moreover,
three French gentlemen and a French lady to dinner, and I had to
act host and try to manage the mixtures to their taste. The good-
natured little Frenchwoman was most amusing; when I asked her if
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: knew all about trails, and he declined to be hurried
over what he considered a bad place. Wes used
sometimes to disagree with him as to what constituted
a bad place. "Some day you're going to take
a tumble, you old fool," Wes used to address him,
"if you go on fiddling down steep rocks with your
little old monkey work. Why don't you step out?"
Only Old Slob never did take a tumble. He was
willing to do anything for you, even to the assuming
of a pack. This is considered by a saddle-animal
distinctly as a come-down.
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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 The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: ingeniously displayed, to which a whole town will become accustomed,
but which are so astounding when a provincial woman makes her
appearance in Paris or among Parisians. Dinah, who was extremely slim,
showed it off to excess, and never knew a dull moment when it became
ridiculous; when, reduced by the dull weariness of her life, she
looked like a skeleton in clothes; and her friends, seeing her every
day, did not observe the gradual change in her appearance.
This is one of the natural results of a provincial life. In spite of
marriage, a young woman preserves her beauty for some time, and the
town is proud of her; but everybody sees her every day, and when
people meet every day their perception is dulled. If, like Madame de
The Muse of the Department |
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 King James Bible: him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and
change your garments:
GEN 35:3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there
an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was
with me in the way which I went.
GEN 35:4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in
their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob
hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
GEN 35:5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities
that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of
Jacob.
King James Bible |
