| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: The Song for Colin
I sang a song at dusking time
Beneath the evening star,
And Terence left his latest rhyme
To answer from afar.
Pierrot laid down his lute to weep,
And sighed, "She sings for me."
But Colin slept a careless sleep
Beneath an apple tree.
Four Winds
"Four winds blowing through the sky,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs: taken me now, and is king. You can hope for nothing from
such a beast as Buckingham."
The fact that Buckingham stood within a pace of us and was
an interested listener appeared not to temper her
expressions in the slightest.
"Buckingham is a pig," she continued. "He is a coward. He
came upon Wettin from behind and ran his spear through him.
He will not be king for long. Some one will make a face at
him, and he will run away and jump into the river."
The people began to titter and clap their hands. Buckingham
became red in the face. It was evident that he was far from
Lost Continent |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: part which her beauty and her father's will had forced her to take;
but now happiness, in the midst of this great storm, played, with a
beautiful flame like a vivid lightning about them. And it was
lightning! Each thought of the last ten years of misconception, and
they blamed themselves only. Michu stood motionless, his elbow on his
gun, his chin on his hand, lost in deep reverie. Such a moment in a
man's life makes him willing to accept the saddest moments of a
painful past.
Marthe, agitated by the same thoughts as those of her husband, was
also troubled in heart by the danger of the Simeuse brothers; for she
now understood all, even the faces of the two Parisians, though she
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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 Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: originality, two rare qualities because the one is apt to exclude the
other. On this occasion he talked for nearly half an hour with madame
de Listomere, without any predetermined idea of pleasing her. As they
followed the caprices of conversation, which, beginning with the opera
of "Guillaume Tell," had reached the topic of the duties of women, he
looked at the marquise, more than once, in a manner that embarrassed
her; then he left her and did not speak to her again for the rest of
the evening. He danced, played at ecarte, lost some money, and went
home to bed. I have the honor to assure you that the affair happened
precisely thus. I add nothing, and I suppress nothing.
The next morning Rastignac woke late and stayed in bed, giving himself
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