| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: pure life. Slight and handsome like her mother, gifted with an
exquisite voice, and a delicate face framed in fine fair hair, she
looked like one of those angels, mystical rather than real, which some
of the early painters grouped in the background of the Holy Family.
The glance of her blue eyes seemed to bring a beam from the sky on
those she favored with a look. Her dress, quite simple, with no
exaggeration of fashion, had a delightful middle-class modesty.
Picture to yourself an old Satan as the father of an angel, and
purified in her divine presence, and you will have an idea of Peyrade
and his daughter. If anybody had soiled this jewel, her father would
have invented, to swallow him alive, one of those dreadful plots in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: Was no great compliment!"
"I'm not so young, Sir," he replied,
"As you might think. The fact is,
In caverns by the water-side,
And other places that I've tried,
I've had a lot of practice:
"But I have never taken yet
A strict domestic part,
And in my flurry I forget
The Five Good Rules of Etiquette
We have to know by heart."
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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 The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: Then Timmy Tiptoes came
out, and went home with an
umbrella.
But Chippy Hackee continued
to camp out for another
week, although it was
uncomfortable.
At last a large bear came
walking through the wood.
Perhaps he also was looking
for nuts; he seemed to be
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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: Well, at the time of the hatching, this disk becomes unstuck, lifts
and allows the new-born Spiders to pass through.
If the rim were movable and simply inserted, if, moreover, the
birth of all the family took place at the same time, we might think
that the door is forced open by the living wave of inmates, who
would set their backs to it with a common effort. We should find
an approximate image in the case of the saucepan, whose lid is
raised by the boiling of its contents. But the fabric of the cover
is one with the fabric of the bag, the two are closely welded;
besides, the hatching is effected in small batches, incapable of
the least exertion. There must, therefore, be a spontaneous
The Life of the Spider |
