| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: him speak or attended to the wisdom of his words. But how actually
is it? His Dialogues, which contain what was immortal in him, lie
on the next shelf, and yet I never read them. We are underbred and
low-lived and illiterate; and in this respect I confess I do not
make any very broad distinction between the illiterateness of my
townsman who cannot read at all and the illiterateness of him who
has learned to read only what is for children and feeble intellects.
We should be as good as the worthies of antiquity, but partly by
first knowing how good they were. We are a race of tit-men, and
soar but little higher in our intellectual flights than the columns
of the daily paper.
Walden |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: I did not awaken him, for sleep in prison is such a priceless
boon that I have seen men transformed into raging brutes when
robbed by one of their fellow-prisoners of a few precious
moments of it.
Returning to my own cell, I found Xodar still sitting in the
same position in which I had left him.
"Man," I cried, "it will profit you nothing to mope thus.
It were no disgrace to be bested by John Carter. You have
seen that in the ease with which I accounted for Thurid.
You knew it before when on the cruiser's deck you saw me
slay three of your comrades."
The Gods of Mars |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Vendetta by Honore de Balzac: The day after we had drunk together to drown our quarrels, I left home
because I had business at Bastia. The Portas remained in my house, and
set fire to my vineyard at Longone. They killed my son Gregorio. My
daughter Ginevra and my wife, having taken the sacrament that morning,
escaped; the Virgin protected them. When I returned I found no house;
my feet were in its ashes as I searched for it. Suddenly they struck
against the body of Gregorio; I recognized him in the moonlight. 'The
Portas have dealt me this blow,' I said; and, forthwith, I went to the
woods, and there I called together all the men whom I had ever served,
--do you hear me, Bonaparte?--and we marched to the vineyard of the
Portas. We got there at five in the morning; at seven they were all
|
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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: added, looking at her husband, "how we shall have bled!--"
"Well, never mind," said Saillard, enthusiastically, "we can always
make it up through Falleix, who is going to extend his business and
use his brother, whom he has made a stockbroker on purpose. Elisabeth
might have told us, I think, why Falleix went off in such a hurry. But
let's invent my little speech. This is what I thought of: 'Madame, if
you would say a word to his Excellency--'"
"'If you would deign,'" said Gaudron; "add the word 'deign,' it is
more respectful. But you ought to know, first of all, whether Madame
la Dauphine will grant you her protection, and then you could suggest
to Madame la comtesse the idea of co-operating with the wishes of her
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