| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: d'Espard had never met that Madame Jeanrenaud, his character, his
learning, his acquirements would have raised him--as his friends then
believed--to high office in the Government. King Charles X., at that
time Monsieur, had the greatest esteem for him, and a peer's seat, an
appointment at Court, some important post certainly would have been
his. That woman turned his head, and has ruined all the prospects of
my family."
"What were M. d'Espard's religious opinions at that time?"
"He was, and is still, a very pious man."
"You do not suppose that Madame Jeanrenaud may have influenced him by
mysticism?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: were particularly eminent for the produce of a race of men who were
without principles of tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to
the miserable, which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in
the mind.
These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a
full stop; and I began by little and little to be off my design,
and to conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to
attack the savages; and that it was not my business to meddle with
them, unless they first attacked me; and this it was my business,
if possible, to prevent: but that, if I were discovered and
attacked by them, I knew my duty. On the other hand, I argued with
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: "Hell." i. 24, "their hero"; and below, viii. 3. Aristoph. "Ach."
78, {oi barbaroi gar andras egountai monous} | {tous pleista
dunamenous phagein te kai piein}: "To the Barbarians 'tis the test
of manhood: there the great drinkers are the greatest men"
(Frere); id. "Knights," 179; "Clouds," 823; so Latin "vir." See
Holden ad loc.
[2] "Us lesser mortals."
To all which Hiero made answer: That the majority of men, Simonides,
should be deluded by the glamour of a despotism in no respect
astonishes me, since it is the very essence of the crowd, if I am not
mistaken, to rush wildly to conjecture touching the happiness or
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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 Recruit by Honore de Balzac: will speak of your patriotic gifts, your civic virtues, and that will
save you."
Madame de Dey feared a trap, and she stood motionless; but her face
was on fire, and her tongue stiff in her mouth. A rap sounded on the
door.
"Oh!" cried the mother, falling on her knees, "save him! save him!"
"Yes, we will save him," said the official, giving her a look of
passion; "if it costs us our life, we will save him."
"I am lost!" she murmured, as the prosecutor raised her courteously.
"Madame," he said, with an oratorical movement, "I will owe you only--
to yourself."
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