| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: writing."
"Well, the next time he comes, point him out to me."
The next time proved to be the next day. The person shown to me was a
short man with gray hair, a rather neglected person and a face deeply
pitted with the small-pox, which seemed to make him about fifty years
of age. He frequently dipped in a large snuffbox; and seemed to be
giving to my remarks an attention I might consider either flattering
or inquisitive, as I pleased; but a certain air of gentleness and
integrity in this supposed police-spy inclined me to the kinder
interpretation. I said so to the waiter, who had plumed himself on
discovering a spy.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Poems of Goethe, Bowring, Tr. by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: The Foolish Pilgrim.]
WHENCE comes our friend so hastily,
When scarce the Eastern sky is grey?
Hath he just ceased, though cold it be,
In yonder holy spot to pray?
The brook appears to hem his path,
Would he barefooted o'er it go?
Why curse his orisons in wrath,
Across those heights beclad with snow?
Alas! his warm bed he bath left,
Where he had look'd for bliss, I ween;
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain: You're right; play it on us, too; play it on us same
as the others; it'll keep you in practice and prevent
you making blunders. We'll keep away from you and let
on we don't know you, but any time we can be any help,
you just let us know."
Then we loafed along past the Nickersons, and of course
they asked if that was the new stranger yonder, and where'd
he come from, and what was his name, and which communion
was he, Babtis' or Methodis', and which politics,
Whig or Democrat, and how long is he staying, and all them
other questions that humans always asks when a stranger comes,
|
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 Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: what care I for the bit of gold that the wench gave
me, if I am to come to harm from the priest next
Easter at confession, and be obliged to give him
twice as much to make it up with him, and be called
the Jew's flying post all my life, as it may hap,
into the bargain? I think I was bewitched in earnest
when I was beside that girl!---But it was always
so with Jew or Gentile, whosoever came
near her---none could stay when she had an errand
to go---and still, whenever I think of her, I would
give shop and tools to save her life.''
Ivanhoe |
