| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: benefits of arbitrary power.
When he went with his report to Jules, he found it necessary to
deceive him, for the unhappy man was in a high fever, unable to leave
his bed. The minister of the Interior mentioned, at a ministerial
dinner that same evening, the singular fancy of a Parisian in wishing
to burn his wife after the manner of the Romans. The clubs of Paris
took up the subject, and talked for a while of the burials of
antiquity. Ancient things were just then becoming a fashion, and some
persons declared that it would be a fine thing to re-establish, for
distinguished persons, the funeral pyre. This opinion had its
defenders and its detractors. Some said that there were too many such
Ferragus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: LITTLE RED-CAP [LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD]
Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was loved by
everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her grandmother, and
there was nothing that she would not have given to the child. Once she
gave her a little cap of red velvet, which suited her so well that she
would never wear anything else; so she was always called 'Little Red-
Cap.'
One day her mother said to her: 'Come, Little Red-Cap, here is a piece
of cake and a bottle of wine; take them to your grandmother, she is
ill and weak, and they will do her good. Set out before it gets hot,
and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: sympathy.
"I know it hurts a good deal. Just a minute and I'll be through."
His hands clutched tightly the edges of his bunk. "That's all
right, doc. You attend to roping that pill and I'll endure the
grief."
A long sigh of relief went up from the assembled cowboys when she
drew the bullet out.
The sinewy hands fastened on the wooden bunk relaxed suddenly.
"'Frisco's daid," gasped the cook, who bore the title of Wun Hop
for no reason except that he was an Irishman in a place formerly
held by a Chinese.
|
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 Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: that each fresh wave of invasion--the Angles, the Saxons, the Danes,
and the Normans--found it a desirable possession and so ensured its
upholding. In the earlier centuries it was merely a vantage ground.
But when the victorious Romans brought with them the heavy solid
fortifications impregnable to the weapons of the time, its
commanding position alone ensured its adequate building and
equipment. Then it was that the fortified camp of the Caesars
developed into the castle of the king. As we are as yet ignorant of
the names of the first kings of Mercia, no historian has been able
to guess which of them made it his ultimate defence; and I suppose
we shall never know now. In process of time, as the arts of war
Lair of the White Worm |
