| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Chouans by Honore de Balzac: Hulot looked with amazement at the pale and withered woman, whose eyes
were dry.
"But you, mother," he said, "what will become of you? you had better
keep the money."
"I?" she replied, shaking her head sadly. "I don't need anything in
this world. You might bolt me into that highest tower over there"
(pointing to the battlements of the castle) "and the Chouans would
contrive to come and kill me."
She kissed her boy with an awful expression of grief, looked at him,
wiped away her tears, looked at him again, and disappeared.
"Commandant," said Corentin, "this is an occasion when two heads are
The Chouans |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: perform his little trick, he isn't telling us about it, so let's
just leave."
"Yeah, let's get out of here," another scientist said. "Every
time we catch him in an impossibility, he tells us the explanation
is in the sky." Then turning to the traveler to say goodbye, he
added, "We cannot believe something when the weight of scientific
evidence is against it."
"But when the physical evidence is clearly before you," said
the traveler, "how can you not believe, even if your theories cannot
explain it?"
"Because such an event would be a miracle, and science has
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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 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: irregular of his unhappy Isosceles class, who indeed obtained,
shortly before his decease, four out of seven votes from the Sanitary
and Social Board for passing him into the class of the Equal-sided --
often deplored, with a tear in his venerable eye, a miscarriage
of this kind, which had occured to his great-great-great-Grandfather,
a respectable Working Man with an angle or brain of 59 degrees
30 minutes. According to his account, my unfortunate Ancestor,
being afflicted with rheumatism, and in the act of being felt
by a Polygon, by one sudden start accidentally transfixed
the Great Man through the diagonal; and thereby, partly in consequence
of his long imprisonment and degradation, and partly because of
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
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 Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: consequence, we are shown every year a series of scenes from fancy
dress balls which are called historical pictures, but are little
more than mediocre representations of modern people masquerading.
In France they are wiser. The French painter uses the model simply
for study; for the finished picture he goes direct to life.
However, we must not blame the sitters for the shortcomings of the
artists. The English models are a well-behaved and hard-working
class, and if they are more interested in artists than in art, a
large section of the public is in the same condition, and most of
our modern exhibitions seem to justify its choice.
POEMS IN PROSE
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