| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: of the rippling fringes as their flux and reflux marked a white line
along the shore. Hearing that note as it gushed from a soul, I fancied
I saw among the rocks the foot of an angel, who with outspread wings
cried out to me, "Thou shalt succeed!" I came down radiant, light-
hearted; I bounded like a pebble rolling down a rapid slope. When she
saw me, she said,--
"What is it?"
I did not answer; my eyes were moist. The night before, Pauline had
understood my sorrows, as she now understood my joy, with the magical
sensitiveness of a harp that obeys the variations of the atmosphere.
Human life has glorious moments. Together we walked in silence along
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: the ground. A stir on the road made me look up--and then I saw
my unforgettable Englishman. There are acquaintances of later
years, familiars, shipmates, whom I remember less clearly. He
marched rapidly toward the east (attended by a hang-dog Swiss
guide), with the mien of an ardent and fearless traveller. He
was clad in a knickerbocker suit, but as at the same time he wore
short socks under his laced boots, for reasons which, whether
hygienic or conscientious, were surely imaginative, his calves,
exposed to the public gaze and to the tonic air of high
altitudes, dazzled the beholder by the splendour of their
marble-like condition and their rich tone of young ivory. He was
A Personal Record |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: under-gardeners, a handsome full-throated Italian, who dashed out
in such a hurry that he nearly knocked me down. I remember
thinking it queer that the fellow, whom I had often seen about
the melon-houses, did not bow to me, or even seem to see me.
"Cousin Joseph sat in his usual seat, behind the darkened
windows, his fat hands folded on his protuberant waistcoat, the
last number of the Churchman at his elbow, and near it, on a huge
dish, a fat melon--the fattest melon I'd ever seen. As I looked
at it I pictured the ecstasy of contemplation from which I must
have roused him, and congratulated myself on finding him in such
a mood, since I had made up my mind to ask him a favour. Then I
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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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: mixing itself greatly with the body, and therefore quick and sensitive
in responding to that which encountered it.
You see from these two extracts what questions were arising in the minds
of men, and how they touched on ethical and theological questions. I
say arising in their minds: I believe that I ought to say rather,
stirred up in their minds by One greater than they. At all events,
there they appeared, utterly independent of any Christian teaching. The
belief in this Logos or Daemon speaking to the Reason of man, was one
which neither Plutarch nor Marcus, neither Numenius nor Ammonius, as far
as we can see, learnt from the Christians; it was the common ground
which they held with them; the common battlefield which they disputed
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