| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: under the turf. Then he was his own master, free to lead a life of
wild dissipation, and indeed he worked very hard to get a surfeit of
enjoyment. Now by making his crowns sweat and his goods scarce,
draining his land, and a bleeding his hogsheads, and regaling frail
beauties, he found himself excommunicated from decent society, and had
for his friends only the plunderers of towns and the Lombardians. But
the usurers turned rough and bitter as chestnut husks, when he had no
other security to give them than his said estate of Roche-Corbon,
since the Rupes Carbonis was held from our Lord the king. Then Bruyn
found himself just in the humour to give a blow here and there, to
break a collar-bone or two, and quarrel with everyone about trifles.
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: "To New York, to St. Louis, and to San Francisco; those are
the principal cities, you know. To-morrow I shall tell
my friends here."
"Have you many?" asked Madame de Bellegarde, in a tone of which I
am afraid that Newman but partly measured the impertinence.
"Enough to bring me a great many hand-shakes and congratulations.
To say nothing," he added, in a moment, "of those I shall receive
from your friends."
"They will not use the telegraph," said the marquise, taking her departure.
M. de Bellegarde, whose wife, her imagination having apparently taken
flight to the tailor's, was fluttering her silken wings in emulation,
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: protimontai (oi egemones)}, "as they (leaders) are first in
honour, they should be first in the fulfilment of their duties"
(Jowett).
[34] The commentators quote Libanius, "Apol." vol. iii. p. 39, {kai
dia touto ekalei men Eurulokhos o Kharistios, ekalei de Skopas k
Kranonios, oukh ekista lontes, upiskhnoumenoi}. Cf. Diog. Laert.
ii. 31, {Kharmidou oiketas auto didontos, in' ap' auton
prosodeuoito, oukh eileto}. Cf. id. 65, 74.
[35] See "Hell." II. ii. 10.
[36] {oikteirein eautous}. See L. Dind. ad loc. For an incident in
point see "Mem." II. vii.
The Apology |
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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: experience, she produced a double eye-glass; and as soon as
the full merit of the works had flashed upon her, she gave
way to peal after peal of her trilling and soprano laughter.
'Oh, I think you are perfectly delicious!' she cried. 'I do
hope you had them in the window. M'Pherson,' she continued,
crying to her maid, who had been all this time grimly waiting
in the hall, 'I lunch with Mr. Somerset. Take the cellar key
and bring some wine.'
In this gay humour she continued throughout the luncheon;
presented Somerset with a couple of dozen of wine, which she
made M'Pherson bring up from the cellar - 'as a present, my
|
