| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: such a creator as you are with the mirror, and he is even more unreal than
the carpenter; although neither the carpenter nor any other artist can be
supposed to make the absolute bed. 'Not if philosophers may be believed.'
Nor need we wonder that his bed has but an imperfect relation to the truth.
Reflect:--Here are three beds; one in nature, which is made by God;
another, which is made by the carpenter; and the third, by the painter.
God only made one, nor could he have made more than one; for if there had
been two, there would always have been a third--more absolute and abstract
than either, under which they would have been included. We may therefore
conceive God to be the natural maker of the bed, and in a lower sense the
carpenter is also the maker; but the painter is rather the imitator of what
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: and Edward will have greater opportunity of improving
that natural taste for your favourite pursuit which must
be so indispensably necessary to your future felicity.
Oh! if he should be so far stimulated by your genius as to
learn to draw himself, how delightful it would be!"
Elinor had given her real opinion to her sister.
She could not consider her partiality for Edward
in so prosperous a state as Marianne had believed it.
There was, at times, a want of spirits about him which,
if it did not denote indifference, spoke a something almost
as unpromising. A doubt of her regard, supposing him
Sense and Sensibility |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: raised his pistol hand from where it hung beside his leg.
For a moment the two stood looking straight into each
other's eyes. On Tarzan's face was a pathetic expression
of disappointment. On De Coude's a rapidly growing
expression of horror--yes, of terror.
He could endure it no longer.
"Mother of God! Monsieur--shoot!" he screamed.
But Tarzan did not raise his pistol. Instead, he advanced
toward De Coude, and when D'Arnot and Monsieur Flaubert,
misinterpreting his intention, would have rushed between
them, he raised his left hand in a sign of remonstrance.
The Return of Tarzan |
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 A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: mapped out in squares of unequal size and shape, all encased with
enormous ridges or embankments of gray earth and filled with water, to
the surface of which the salt scum rises. These gullies, made by the
hand of man, are again divided by causeways, along which the laborers
pass, armed with long rakes, with which they drag this scum to the
bank, heaping it on platforms placed at equal distances when the salt
is fit to handle.
For two hours we skirted the edge of this melancholy checkerboard,
where salt has stifled all forms of vegetation, and where no one ever
comes but a few "paludiers," the local name given to the laborers of
the salt marshes. These men, or rather this clan of Bretons, wear a
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