| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: certitude: "Here Mary Stuart cajoled her husband on behalf of the
Guises." "There, the Guises insulted Catherine." "Later, at that very
spot the second Balafre fell beneath the daggers of the avengers of
the Crown." "A century earlier, from this very window, Louis XII. made
signs to his friend Cardinal d'Amboise to come to him." "Here, on this
balcony, d'Epernon, the accomplice of Ravaillac, met Marie de' Medici,
who knew, it was said, of the proposed regicide, and allowed it to be
committed."
In the chapel, where the marriage of Henri IV. and Marguerite de
Valois took place, the sole remaining fragment of the chateau of the
counts of Blois, a regiment now makes it shoes. This wonderful
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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: even though their contents came alike to him whether they were books
of heroic adventure or mere grammars or liturgical compendia. As I
say, he perused every book with an equal amount of attention, and, had
he been offered a work on chemistry, would have accepted that also.
Not the words which he read, but the mere solace derived from the act
of reading, was what especially pleased his mind; even though at any
moment there might launch itself from the page some devil-sent word
whereof he could make neither head nor tail. For the most part, his
task of reading was performed in a recumbent position in the anteroom;
which circumstance ended by causing his mattress to become as ragged
and as thin as a wafer. In addition to his love of poring over books,
Dead Souls |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Aesop's Fables by Aesop: you cannot reckon."
The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
A Wolf found great difficulty in getting at the sheep owing to
the vigilance of the shepherd and his dogs. But one day it found
the skin of a sheep that had been flayed and thrown aside, so it
put it on over its own pelt and strolled down among the sheep.
The Lamb that belonged to the sheep, whose skin the Wolf was
wearing, began to follow the Wolf in the Sheep's clothing; so,
leading the Lamb a little apart, he soon made a meal off her, and
for some time he succeeded in deceiving the sheep, and enjoying
hearty meals.
Aesop's Fables |
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 'Twixt Land & Sea by Joseph Conrad: wealth of hair was so glossy that when the screens of the west
verandah were down, making a pleasant twilight there, or in the
shade of the grove of fruit-trees near the house, it seemed to give
out a golden light of its own.
She dressed generally in a white frock, with a skirt of walking
length, showing her neat, laced, brown boots. If there was any
colour about her costume it was just a bit of blue perhaps. No
exertion seemed to distress her. I have seen her land from the
dinghy after a long pull in the sun (she rowed herself about a good
deal) with no quickened breath and not a single hair out of its
place. In the morning when she came out on the verandah for the
'Twixt Land & Sea |
