| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: that seizes my heart, and rends it as with talons. I have myself spread the
net; I know its firm, inextricable knots; I know that every avenue is barred
alike to courage and to stratagem. I feel that I too, like thyself, like all the
rest, am fettered. Think'st thou that I should give way to lamentation if any
means of safety remained untried? I have thrown myself at his feet,
remonstrated, implored. He has sent me hither, in order to blast in this
fatal moment, every remnant of joy and happiness that yet survived within
my heart.
Egmont. And is there no deliverance?
Ferdinand. None!
Egmont (stamping his foot). No deliverance!-Sweet life! Sweet, pleasant
Egmont |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: career so well, you should abandon it merely for the reason that you
have not fallen in with the sort of Director whom you prefer! What do
you mean by it, what do you mean by it? Were others to regard things
in the same way, the Service would find itself without a single
individual. Reconsider your conduct--forego your pride and conceit,
and make Lienitsin amends."
"But, dear Uncle," the nephew replied, "that is not the point. The
point is, not that I should find an apology difficult to offer, seeing
that, since Lienitsin is my superior, and I ought not to have
addressed him as I did, I am clearly in the wrong. Rather, the point
is the following. To my charge there has been committed the
Dead Souls |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: wholly familiar thing that had greeted her eye since she had left
old Maggie and her weakling calf. I could feel how all those
details sank into her soul, for I had not forgotten how they had
sunk into mine when. I came fresh from plowing forever and
forever between green aisles of corn, where, as in a treadmill,
one might walk from daybreak to dusk without perceiving a shadow
of change. The clean profiles of the musicians, the gloss of
their linen, the dull black of their coats, the beloved shapes of
the instruments, the patches of yellow light thrown by the green-
shaded lamps on the smooth, varnished bellies of the cellos and
the bass viols in the rear, the restless, wind-tossed forest of
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
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 Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: change for that which they produce. Thus we are es-
tablishing a trade between kingdoms, the profits from
which go to the betterment of the people--to building
factories for the manufacture of agricultural implements,
and machinery for the various trades we are gradually
teaching the people.
Already Anoroc and Luana are vying with one
another in the excellence of the ships they build. Each
has several large ship-yards. Anoroc makes gunpowder
and mines iron ore, and by means of their ships they
carry on a very lucrative trade with Thuria, Sari, and
Pellucidar |
