| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: thought of the family physician's appearance and the explanations
that this might entail.
Stepping between Alfred and the 'phone, Aggie protested
frantically. "You see, Alfred," she said, "it is better to have
the rash OUT, it won't do any harm unless it turns IN."
"He's perfectly well," declared Zoie, "if you'll only put him in
his crib and leave him alone."
Alfred looked down at his charge. "Is that right, son?" he
asked, and he tickled the little fellow playfully in the ribs.
"I'll tell you what," he called over his shoulder to Zoie, "he's
a fine looking boy." And then with a mysterious air, he nodded
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: Here, then, we have even taken even times, and odd taken odd times, and
even taken odd times, and odd taken even times.
True.
And if this is so, does any number remain which has no necessity to be?
None whatever.
Then if one is, number must also be?
It must.
But if there is number, there must also be many, and infinite multiplicity
of being; for number is infinite in multiplicity, and partakes also of
being: am I not right?
Certainly.
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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 Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: him on my lap, all alone upstairs, when I wasn't more than eight
years old myself. And then - He was mine, I tell you. . . . You
can't understand that. No man can understand it. What was I to
do? There was a young fellow - "
The memory of the early romance with the young butcher survived,
tenacious, like the image of a glimpsed ideal in that heart
quailing before the fear of the gallows and full of revolt against
death.
"That was the man I loved then," went on the widow of Mr Verloc.
"I suppose he could see it in my eyes too. Five and twenty
shillings a week, and his father threatened to kick him out of the
The Secret Agent |
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 Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: "Very well! But when I told her so, as I have told you, and more
forcibly still; threatening her as I was mad with rage and ready
to do the deed that I had dreamed of on the spot, what do you
think she said?"
"That you were a good fellow, and would certainly not have the
atrocious courage to--"
"Tut! tut! tut! I am not such a good fellow as you think. I am
not frightened of blood, and that I have proved already, though
it would be useless to tell you how and where. But I had no
necessity to prove it to her, for she knows that I am capable of
a good many things; even of crime; especially of one crime."
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