| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: storehouse of the temple a very picture of desolation. Twice I
tried to speak with her, my heart being moved to pity by the dumb
torment in her eyes, but she turned her head from me and made no
answer.
Soon it came to the knowledge of the Spaniards that we had enough
food and water upon the teocalli to enable us to live there for a
month or more, and seeing that there was no hope of capturing the
place by force of arms, they called a parley with us.
I went down to the breach in the roadway and spoke with their
envoy, who stood upon the path below. At first the terms offered
were that we should surrender at discretion. To this I answered
Montezuma's Daughter |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: taking advantage of the irrepressible and boundless hopefulness
of the human mind. Art also comes to the aid of Law and Order.
It is generally found possible -- by a little artificial
compression or expansion on the part of the State physicians --
to make some of the more intelligent leaders of a rebellion
perfectly Regular, and to admit them at once into
the privileged classes; a much larger number, who are still below
the standard, allured by the prospect of being ultimately ennobled,
are induced to enter the State Hospitals, where they are kept
in honourable confinement for life; one or two alone
of the more obstinate, foolish, and hopelessly irregular are led
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Macbeth by William Shakespeare: Banquo, and Donalbaine: Malcolme awake,
Shake off this Downey sleepe, Deaths counterfeit,
And looke on Death it selfe: vp, vp, and see
The great Doomes Image: Malcolme, Banquo,
As from your Graues rise vp, and walke like Sprights,
To countenance this horror. Ring the Bell.
Bell rings. Enter Lady.
Lady. What's the Businesse?
That such a hideous Trumpet calls to parley
The sleepers of the House? speake, speake
Macd. O gentle Lady,
Macbeth |
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 Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: that the Tarantula always has the upper hand and this moreover in a
very short conflict, whence she emerges unscathed? There must
certainly be some cunning strategy on her part. Subtle though her
poison may be, I cannot believe that its mere injection, at any
point whatever of the victim, is enough to produce so prompt a
catastrophe. The ill-famed rattle-snake does not kill so quickly,
takes hours to achieve that for which the Tarantula does not
require a second. We must, therefore, look for an explanation of
this sudden death to the vital importance of the point attacked by
the Spider, rather than to the virulence of the poison.
What is this point? It is impossible to recognize it on the
The Life of the Spider |
