| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: brutal word, to her at least; in fact, he endeavored to forestall her
every wish. The poor pariah, believing himself disagreeable to his
wife, spent most of his time out of doors. Marthe and Michu,
distrustful of each other, lived in what is called in these days an
"armed peace." Marthe, who saw no one, suffered keenly from the
ostracism which for the last seven years had surrounded her as the
daughter of a revolutionary butcher, and the wife of a so-called
traitor. More than once she had overheard the laborers of the
adjoining farm (held by a man named Beauvisage, greatly attached to
the Simeuse family) say as they passed the pavilion, "That's where
Judas lives!" The singular resemblance between the bailiff's head and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: made him worse.
One day, after he had borrowed The Worm's trap for a lady who never
existed, had used it himself all the afternoon, had sent a note to
The Worm purporting to come from the lady, and was telling the Mess
all about it, The Worm rose in his place and said, in his quiet,
ladylike voice: "That was a very pretty sell; but I'll lay you a
month's pay to a month's pay when you get your step, that I work a
sell on you that you'll remember for the rest of your days, and the
Regiment after you when you're dead or broke." The Worm wasn't
angry in the least, and the rest of the Mess shouted. Then the
Senior Subaltern looked at The Worm from the boots upwards, and down
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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 Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: the slow, measured respiration of tranquil slumber
before his wife was ready to leave the room.
The dim, cold gray of twilight was sifting furtively through
the lace curtains of the front windows when Mrs. Soulsby,
lamp in hand, entered the parlor. She confronted a figure
she would have hardly recognized. The man seemed to have
been submerged in a bath of disgrace. From the crown
of his head to the soles of his feet, everything about him
was altered, distorted, smeared with an intangible effect
of shame. In the vague gloom of the middle distance,
between lamp and window, she noticed that his shoulders
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
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 Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: they are. At the Judean supper there was one Master, and to the onlooker
there may have seemed twelve apostles; in truth only twelve were of the
company, and one was not of it. There has always been this thirteenth
figure at every sacramental gathering, since the world began, wherever the
upholders of a great cause have broken spiritual bread; but it may be
questioned whether in any instance this thirteenth figure has been able to
destroy, or even vitally to retard, any great human movement. Judas could
hang his Master by a kiss; but he could not silence the voice which for a
thousand years rang out of that Judean grave. Again and again, in social,
political, and intellectual movements, the betrayer betrays;--and the cause
marches on over the body of the man.
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