| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: and in his delirium his ravings have been dreadful, of wolves and poison
and blood, of ghosts and demons, and I fear to say of what. Be careful of him
always that there may be nothing to excite him of this kind for a long time
to come. The traces of such an illness as his do not lightly die away.
We should have written long ago, but we knew nothing of his friends,
and there was nothing on him, nothing that anyone could understand.
He came in the train from Klausenburg, and the guard was told by the station
master there that he rushed into the station shouting for a ticket for home.
Seeing from his violent demeanor that he was English, they gave him a ticket
for the furthest station on the way thither that the train reached.
"Be assured that he is well cared for. He has won all hearts
Dracula |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: adgressi magnum eorum numerum occiderunt; per eorum corpora reliquos
audacissime transire conantes multitudine telorum reppulerunt primosque,
qui transierant, equitatu circumventos interfecerunt. Hostes, ubi et de
expugnando oppido et de flumine transeundo spem se fefellisse
intellexerunt neque nostros in locum iniquiorum progredi pugnandi causa
viderunt atque ipsos res frumentaria deficere coepit, concilio convocato
constituerunt optimum esse domum suam quemque reverti, et quorum in fines
primum Romani exercitum introduxissent, ad eos defendendos undique
convenirent, ut potius in suis quam in alienis finibus decertarent et
domesticis copiis rei frumentariae uterentur. Ad eam sententiam cum
reliquis causis haec quoque ratio eos deduxit, quod Diviciacum atque
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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 United States Declaration of Independence: acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them,
as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America,
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of
the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name,
and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies,
solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are,
and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States;
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,
and that all political connection between them and the State
of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;
United States Declaration of Independence |
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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: from the garden that came in through the open windows; but as she
played there grew and grew the feeling that he was there, beside
her, standing in his accustomed place. In the duet at the end of
the first act she heard him clearly: "Thou art the Spring for
which I sighed in Winter's cold embraces." Once as he sang
it, he had put his arm about her, his one hand under her heart,
while with the other he took her right from the keyboard, holding
her as he always held Sieglinde when he drew her toward the
window. She had been wonderfully the mistress of herself at the
time; neither repellent nor acquiescent. She remembered that she
had rather exulted, then, in her self-control--which he had seemed
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
