| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: seizures of real estate have a whole section of the Code to
themselves; they are expected and provided for; you are in a position
recognized by the law.--If I were not an old man with white hair, I
would thrash those fools I hear reading aloud in the streets such an
abomination as this," added the worthy notary, taking up a paper; "'At
the request of Dame Natalie Evangelista, wife of Paul-Francois-Joseph,
Comte de Manerville, separated from him as to worldly goods and
chattels by the Lower court of the department of the Seine--'"
"Yes, and now separated in body," said Paul.
"Ah!" exclaimed the old man.
"Oh! against my wife's will," added the count, hastily. "I was forced
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dream Life and Real Life by Olive Schreiner: were dying; all my fingers turn cold; I feel dead. Oh, you were only his
friend; you don't know!"
The older spoke softly and quickly, "Don't you feel a little gentle to her
when you think she's going to be his wife and the mother of his child? I
would like to put my arms round her and touch her once, if she would let
me. She is so beautiful, they say."
"Oh, I could never bear to see her; it would kill me. And they are so
happy together today! He is loving her so!"
"Don't you want him to be happy?" The older woman looked down at her.
"Have you never loved him, at all?"
The younger woman's face was covered with her hands. "Oh, it's so
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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 Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: in a secret place far away. All the women and the children shall come
to it except Nada, who will not leave her lover, and if there be any
man whom a woman loves, perhaps, my sisters, that man would do well to
go on a journey about the time of the new moon, for evil things may
happen at the town of the People of the Axe while we are away
celebrating our feast."
"What, then, shall befall, my sister?" asked one.
"Nay, how can I tell?" she answered. "I only know that we are minded
to be rid of Nada, and thus to be avenged on a man who has scorned our
love--ay, and on those men who follow after the beauty of Nada. Is it
not so, my sisters?"
Nada the Lily |
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 Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: the peril of losing them, no less than the peril of keeping them....
Weeks and weeks went on, and I grew more and more absorbed in you.
Then came a new development. I had drawn you as Paris in
dainty armour, and as Adonis with huntsman's cloak and polished
boar-spear. Crowned with heavy lotus-blossoms you had sat on
the prow of Adrian's barge, gazing across the green turbid Nile.
You had leaned over the still pool of some Greek woodland and seen
in the water's silent silver the marvel of your own face.
And it had all been what art should be--unconscious, ideal, and remote.
One day, a fatal day I sometimes think, I determined to paint
a wonderful portrait of you as you actually are, not in the costume
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
