| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: comes down from his pedestal and compromises.
Influenced by a false idea of his grandeur and of his future,--the
measure of which he reckons on the noble success of one of his former
comrades, one of the few great talents brought to light by the
revolution of July,--he allows himself, in order to get out of his
embarrassments, certain laxities of principle with persons who are
friendly to him,--laxities which never come to the surface, but are
buried in private life, where no one ever mentions or complains of
them. The shallowness of his heart, the impurity of his hand, which
clasps that of all vices, all evils, all treacheries, all opinions,
have made him as inviolable as a constitutional king. Venial sins,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Juana by Honore de Balzac: her salons, brought her nothing but pain.
This lack of esteem was perfectly natural. Diard's comrades, in spite
of the virtues which our imaginations attribute to soldiers, never
forgave the former quartermaster of the 6th of the line for becoming
suddenly so rich and for attempting to cut a figure in Paris. Now in
Paris, from the last house in the faubourg Saint-Germain to the last
in the rue Saint-Lazare, between the heights of the Luxembourg and the
heights of Montmartre, all that clothes itself and gabbles, clothes
itself to go out and goes out to gabble. All that world of great and
small pretensions, that world of insolence and humble desires, of envy
and cringing, all that is gilded or tarnished, young or old, noble of
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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 Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare: IAILOR.
Ev'n thus all day long.
DAUGHTER.
Now for this Charme, that I told you of: you must bring a peece
of silver on the tip of your tongue, or no ferry: then, if it be
your chance to come where the blessed spirits, as ther's a sight
now--we maids that have our Lyvers perish'd, crakt to peeces with
Love, we shall come there, and doe nothing all day long but picke
flowers with Proserpine; then will I make Palamon a Nosegay; then
let him marke me,--then--
DOCTOR.
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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 Cavalry General by Xenophon: determine with precision[11] the exact number of the enemy he will
care to deal with. Occasionally the fine chance occurs to atack the
foe while encamping or breakfasting or supping, or as the men turn out
of bed: seasons at which the soldier is apt to be unharnessed--the
hoplite for a shorter, the cavalry trooper for a longer period.[12]
[11] See "Anab." II. v. 18; "Cyrop." III. iii. 47; IV. i. 18.
{tamieusasthai}, "with the precision of a controller."
[12] Cf. "Hell." II. iv. 6; VII. i. 16.
As to vedettes and advanced outposts, you should never cease planning
and plotting against them. For these in their turn, as a rule, are apt
to consist of small numbers, and are sometimes posted at a great
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