| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: unmistakably of unhappiness, of a passion that had all but cost her
her life. A woman, sitting in the great, silent salon, a woman cut off
from the rest of the world in this remote little valley, alone, with
the memories of her brilliant, happy, and impassioned youth, of
continual gaiety and homage paid on all sides, now replaced by the
horrors of the void--was there not something in the sight to strike
awe that deepened with reflection? Consciousness of her own value
lurked in her smile. She was neither wife nor mother, she was an
outlaw; she had lost the one heart that could set her pulses beating
without shame; she had nothing from without to support her reeling
soul; she must even look for strength from within, live her own life,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling: malice. My spirits, d'ye see, were catched up in a high, solemn
exaltation, and I saw all earth's vanities foreshortened and little,
laid out below me like a town from a cathedral scaffolding. I told
him what befell, and what I thought of it. I gave him the King's
very voice at "Master Dawe, you've saved me thirty pounds!";
his peevish grunt while he looked for the sword; and how the
badger-eyed figures of Glory and Victory leered at me from the
Flemish hangings. Body o' me, 'twas a fine, noble tale, and, as I
thought, my last work on earth.
'"That is how I was honoured by the King," I said. "They'll
hang ye for killing me, Benedetto. And, since you've killed in the
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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 Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: Divine is faithful, he also must be faithful; if free, he also
must be free; if beneficent, he also must be beneficent; if
magnanimous, he also must be magnanimous. Thus as an imitator of
God must he follow Him in every deed and word.
LXVII
If I show you, that you lack just what is most important and
necessary to happiness, that hitherto your attention has been
bestowed on everything rather than that which claims it most;
and, to crown all, that you know neither what God nor Man is--
neither what Good or Evil is: why, that you are ignorant of
everything else, perhaps you may bear to be told; but to hear
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
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 Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: every vein painfully swelled. She might have been a criminal
undergoing torture. But she did not utter a cry; there was not a
sound, all three speechless and motionless. The husband snored with
reassuring regularity. I wanted to study the waiting-woman's face, but
she had put on a mask, which she had removed, no doubt, during our
drive, and I could see nothing but a pair of black eyes and a
pleasingly rounded figure.
" 'The lover threw some towels over his mistress' legs and folded the
muslin veil double over her face. As soon as I had examined the lady
with care, I perceived from certain symptoms which I had noted once
before on a very sad occasion in my life, that the infant was dead. I
The Muse of the Department |
