| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche: marriage break--me!
The badly paired found I ever the most revengeful: they make every one
suffer for it that they no longer run singly.
On that account want I the honest ones to say to one another: "We love
each other: let us SEE TO IT that we maintain our love! Or shall our
pledging be blundering?"
--"Give us a set term and a small marriage, that we may see if we are fit
for the great marriage! It is a great matter always to be twain."
Thus do I counsel all honest ones; and what would be my love to the
Superman, and to all that is to come, if I should counsel and speak
otherwise!
Thus Spake Zarathustra |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: hatchway was raised. The man I had so impatiently awaited appeared on
deck.
I must admit he paid no more attention to me, than his men had done.
Going to the stern, he took the helm. The man whom he had relieved,
after a few words in a low tone, left the deck, descending by the
forward hatchway. The captain, having scanned the horizon, consulted
the compass, and slightly altered our course. The speed of the
"Terror" increased.
This man, so interesting both to me and to the world, must have been
some years over fifty. He was of middle height, with powerful
shoulders still very erect; a strong head, with thick hair rather
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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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: satisfied with love? Then, through his lamentation, by a transition to
the key of E flat, /allegro/, common time, we hear the cries of the
epileptic lover, his fury and certain warlike phrases, for the mighty
charms of the one and only woman give him the impulse to multiplied
loves which strikes us in /Don Giovanni/. Now, as you hear these
themes, do you not catch a glimpse of Mahomet's Paradise?
"And next we have a /cantabile/ (A flat major, six-eight time), that
might expand the soul that is least susceptible to music. Kadijah has
understood Mahomet! Then Kadijah announces to the populace the
Prophet's interviews with the Angel Gabriel (/maestoso sostenuto/ in F
Major). The magistrates and priests, power and religion, feeling
Gambara |
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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: And when great treasure is the meed propos'd,
Though death be adjunct, there's no death suppos'd.
Those that much covet are with gain so fond,
For what they have not, that which they possess
They scatter and unloose it from their bond,
And so, by hoping more, they have but less;
Or, gaining more, the profit of excess
Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain,
That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain.
The aim of all is but to nurse the life
With honour, wealth, and ease, in waning age;
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