| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Christ in Flanders by Honore de Balzac: future, on my blighted hopes. Gnawed by these gloomy thoughts, I
turned mechanically into the convent church, with the gray towers that
loomed like ghosts though the sea mists. I looked round with no
kindling of the imagination at the forest of columns, at the slender
arches set aloft upon the leafy capitals, a delicate labyrinth of
sculpture. I walked with careless eyes along the side aisles that
opened out before me like vast portals, ever turning upon their
hinges. It was scarcely possible to see, by the dim light of the
autumn day, the sculptured groinings of the roof, the delicate and
clean-cut lines of the mouldings of the graceful pointed arches. The
organ pipes were mute. There was no sound save the noise of my own
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: Dieu a mis dans sa bouche des mots terribles. Dans le palais, comme
dans le desert, Dieu est toujours avec lui . . . Au moins, c'est
possible. On ne sait pas, mais il est possible que Dieu soit pour
lui et avec lui. Aussi peut-etre que s'il mourrait, il m'arriverait
un malheur. Enfin, il a dit que le jour ou il mourrait il
arriverait un malheur e quelqu'un. Ce ne peut etre qu'e moi.
Souvenez-vous, j'ai glisse dans le sang quand je suis entre ici.
Aussi j'ai entendu un battement d'ailes dans l'air, un battement
d'ailes gigantesques. Ce sont de tres mauvais presages. Et il y en
avait d'autres. Je suis sur qu'il y en avait d'autres, quoique je
ne les aie pas vus. Eh bien! Salome, vous ne voulez pas qu'un
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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 Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: dimly lighted by dozens of big round discs that looked
like moons. They were not moons, however, as Woot
discovered when he had examined the place more
carefully. They were eyes. The eyes were in the heads
of enormous beasts whose bodies trailed far behind
them. Each beast was bigger than an elephant, and three
times as long, and there were a dozen or more of the
creatures scattered here and there about the cavern. On
their bodies were big scales, as round as pie-plates,
which were beautifully tinted in shades of green,
purple and orange. On the ends of their long tails were
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
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 Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds;
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
Second Inaugural Address |
