| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: Extra Current; on the Polar and other Condition of Diamagnetic
Bodies; on Lines of Magnetic Force, their definite character and
distribution; on the employment of the Induced Magneto-electric
Current as a measure and test of Magnetic Action; on the Revulsive
Phenomena of the magnetic field, are all, notwithstanding the
diversity of title, researches in the domain of Magneto-electric
Induction.
Faraday's second group of researches and discoveries embrace the
chemical phenomena of the current. The dominant result here is the
great law of definite Electro-chemical Decomposition, around which
are massed various researches on Electro-chemical Conduction and on
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: as it was, Martin was so fixed in the groove of his attitude of
utter indifference toward her that she felt there was little
chance of ever jogging him out of it. To Rose, the very fact that
the possibility of happiness seemed so nearly within reach was
what put the cruel edge to their present status.
She did not comprehend that Martin definitely did not want it
changed. Conscious, at last, that he was slowly starving for a
woman's love, beginning to brood because there was no beauty in
his life, he was looking at her with eyes as newly appraising as
her own. He remembered her as she had been that day in the bank,
when he had thought her like a rose. She had been all white and
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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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: the name of presentiments (a word of astonishing verbal accuracy),
Montefiore spent the first hours of the night at his window,
endeavoring to look below him to the secret apartment where,
undoubtedly, the merchant and his wife had hidden the love and
joyfulness of their old age. The ware-room of the "entresol" separated
him from the rooms on the ground-floor. The captain therefore could
not have recourse to noises significantly made from one floor to the
other, an artificial language which all lovers know well how to
create. But chance, or it may have been the young girl herself, came
to his assistance. At the moment when he stationed himself at his
window, he saw, on the black wall of the courtyard, a circle of light,
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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 Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: "That the idea is not mine. I can risk nothing upon it."
These words drew a deep sigh from the heart of Planchet.
That Avarice is an ardent counselor; she carries away her
man, as Satan did Jesus, to the mountain, and when once she
has shown to an unfortunate all the kingdoms of the earth,
she is able to repose herself, knowing full well that she
has left her companion, Envy, to gnaw his heart. Planchet
had tasted of riches easily acquired, and was never
afterwards likely to stop in his desires; but, as he had a
good heart in spite of his covetousness, as he adored
D'Artagnan, he could not refrain from making him a thousand
Ten Years Later |
