| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moran of the Lady Letty by Frank Norris: and calloused. In her men's clothes she looked tall, vigorous,
and unrestrained, and on more than one occasion, as Wilbur passed
close to her, he was made aware that her hair, her neck, her
entire personality exhaled a fine, sweet, natural redolence that
savored of the ocean and great winds.
One day, as he saw her handling a huge water-barrel by the chines
only, with a strength he knew to be greater than his own, her
brows contracted with the effort, her hair curling about her thick
neck, her large, round arms bare to the elbow, a sudden thrill of
enthusiasm smote through him, and between his teeth he exclaimed
to himself:
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde: It is, if I can fully attain to it, the ultimate realisation of the
artistic life. For the artistic life is simply self-development.
Humility in the artist is his frank acceptance of all experiences,
just as love in the artist is simply the sense of beauty that
reveals to the world its body and its soul. In MARIUS THE
EPICUREAN Pater seeks to reconcile the artistic life with the life
of religion, in the deep, sweet, and austere sense of the word.
But Marius is little more than a spectator: an ideal spectator
indeed, and one to whom it is given 'to contemplate the spectacle
of life with appropriate emotions,' which Wordsworth defines as the
poet's true aim; yet a spectator merely, and perhaps a little too
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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 Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: he began to think. "If all is true about this bottle, I may have
made a losing bargain," thinks he. "But perhaps the man was only
fooling me." The first thing he did was to count his money; the
sum was exact - forty-nine dollars American money, and one Chili
piece. "That looks like the truth," said Keawe. "Now I will try
another part."
The streets in that part of the city were as clean as a ship's
decks, and though it was noon, there were no passengers. Keawe set
the bottle in the gutter and walked away. Twice he looked back,
and there was the milky, round-bellied bottle where he left it. A
third time he looked back, and turned a corner; but he had scarce
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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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: Celestin's ear the most vigorous blow that ever resounded in a
Parisian perfumery.
"Learn to respect women, my angel," she said, "and don't smirch the
names of the people you rob."
"Madame," said Madame Birotteau, entering from the back-shop, where
she happened to be with her husband,--whom Pillerault was persuading
to go with him, while Cesar, to obey the law, was humbly expressing
his willingness to go to prison,--"madame, for heaven's sake do not
raise a mob, and bring a crowd upon us!"
"Hey! let them come," said the woman; "I'll tell them a tale that will
make you laugh the wrong side of your mouth. Yes, my nuts and my
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
