| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche: "men of duty," even we! Occasionally, it is true, we dance in our
"chains" and betwixt our "swords"; it is none the less true that
more often we gnash our teeth under the circumstances, and are
impatient at the secret hardship of our lot. But do what we will,
fools and appearances say of us: "These are men WITHOUT duty,"--
we have always fools and appearances against us!
227. Honesty, granting that it is the virtue of which we cannot
rid ourselves, we free spirits--well, we will labour at it with
all our perversity and love, and not tire of "perfecting"
ourselves in OUR virtue, which alone remains: may its glance some
day overspread like a gilded, blue, mocking twilight this aging
Beyond Good and Evil |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: While Philomela sits and sings, I sit and mark,
And wish her lays were tuned like the lark;
For she doth welcome daylight with her ditty,
And drives away dark dismal-dreaming night:
The night so pack'd, I post unto my pretty;
Heart hath his hope, and eyes their wished sight;
Sorrow changed to solace, solace mix'd with sorrow;
For why, she sigh'd and bade me come tomorrow.
Were I with her, the night would post too soon;
But now are minutes added to the hours;
To spite me now, each minute seems a moon;
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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 Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: you see if it don't."
But Old Jeff Hooker he throwed cold water on the whole
business when we got to his blacksmith shop and told him
what we come for.
"You can take the dog," he says, "but you ain't a-going
to find any corpse, because there ain't any corpse to find.
Everybody's quit looking, and they're right. Soon as they
come to think, they knowed there warn't no corpse.
And I'll tell you for why. What does a person kill another
person for, Tom Sawyer?--answer me that."
"Why, he--er--"
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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 The Breaking Point by Mary Roberts Rinehart: down at the bed. "Big fine-looking chap, isn't he?" he commented.
"Married?"
"No."
"Well, we'll get the ambulance, and later on we'll go over him
properly. I'd call a maid to sit with him, if I were you." In the
grip of a situation that was too much for him, Bassett rang the
bell. It was answered by the elderly maid who took care of his
own bedroom.
Months later, puzzling over the situation, Bassett was to wonder,
and not to know, whether chance or design brought the Thorwald
woman to the door that night. At the time, and for weeks, he laid
The Breaking Point |
