| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Danny's Own Story by Don Marquis: that ring, and--"
Dern it! I had forgot I had lost that half of that
there ring! I remembered so quick it stopped me.
"You always kept it, Danny?" she asts me, very
soft-spoken, so as not to give pain to one so faithful
and so noble as what I was. "Let me see it, Danny."
I made like I was feeling through all my pockets
fur it. But that couldn't last forever. I run out
of pockets purty soon. And her face begun to show
she was smelling a rat. Finally I says:
"These ain't my other clothes--it must be in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: ancients used all that oil on their heads they had some reason for it;
for the ancients are the ancients, in spite of all the moderns may
say; I stand by Boileau about the ancients. I took my departure from
that point and got the oil of nuts, thanks to your relation, little
Bianchon the medical student; he told me that at school his comrades
used nut oil to promote the growth of their whiskers and mustachios.
All we need is the approval of Monsieur Vauquelin; enlightened by his
science, we shall mislead the public. I was in the markets just now,
talking to a seller of nuts, so as to get hold of the raw material,
and now I am about to meet one of the greatest scientific men in
France, to get at the quintessence of that commodity. Proverbs are no
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: some lofty tower, to discern the whole tendency of the ancient
world, the triumph of Roman institutions and of Greek thought which
is the last message of the old world and, in a more spiritual
sense, has become the Gospel of the new.
One thing indeed he did not see, or if he saw it, he thought but
little of it - how from the East there was spreading over the
world, as a wave spreads, a spiritual inroad of new religions from
the time when the Pessinuntine mother of the gods, a shapeless mass
of stone, was brought to the eternal city by her holiest citizen,
to the day when the ship CASTOR AND POLLUX stood in at Puteoli, and
St. Paul turned his face towards martyrdom and victory at Rome.
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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 Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe: to me, and let me put a paper round it, and tie it to my umbrella
with my shade;--there, now."
"Why, aunty, we are only going up home;--what is the use?"
"To keep it nice, child; people must take care of their things,
if they ever mean to have anything; and now, Eva, is your
thimble put up?"
"Really, aunty, I don't know."
"Well, never mind; I'll look your box over,--thimble, wax, two
spools, scissors, knife, tape-needle; all right,--put it in here.
What did you ever do, child, when you were coming on with
only your papa. I should have thought you'd a lost everything
Uncle Tom's Cabin |
