| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: down-grades where you lose your time, your soul, and your life!
At length M. de Nueil received a missive through the instrumentality
of Jacques, a letter that bore the arms of Burgundy on the scented
seal, a letter written on vellum notepaper.
He rushed away at once to lock himself in, and read and re-read /her/
letter:--
"You are punishing me very severely, monsieur, both for the
friendliness of my effort to spare you a rebuff, and for the
attraction which intellect always has for me. I put confidence in
the generosity of youth, and you have disappointed me. And yet, if
I did not speak unreservedly (which would have been perfectly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: is this?" he asked. "Why do you weep now?[51] Do you not know that for
many a long day, ever since I was born, sentence of death was passed
upon me by nature? If so be I perish prematurely while the tide of
life's blessings flows free and fast, certainly I and my well-wishers
should feel pained; but if it be that I am bringing my life to a close
on the eve of troubles, for my part I think you ought all of you to
take heart of grace and rejoice in my good fortune."
[51] "Why precisely now?"
Now there was a certain Apollodorus,[52] who was an enthusiastic lover
of the master, but for the rest a simple-minded man. He exclaimed very
innocently, "But the hardest thing of all to bear, Socrates, is to see
The Apology |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: Strikes, 66, 67, 70, 78 ff., 130
Syndicalism, passim--
and Marx, 28, 116
and party, 30
and liberty, 85
and political action, 30, 69
129 ff.
and anarchism, x, 66, 72,
in France, 58 ff.
in Italy, 58n.
reformist and revolutionary,
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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 Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: stones."
M. Lantin replied, seriously:
"It is only another way of investing one's money."
That day he lunched at Voisin's and drank wine worth twenty
francs a bottle. Then he hired a carriage and made a tour of the
Bois, and as he scanned the various turn-outs with a contemptuous
air he could hardly refrain from crying out to the occupants:
"I, too, am rich!--I am worth two hundred thousand francs."
Suddenly he thought of his employer. He drove up to the office,
and entered gaily, saying:
"Sir, I have come to resign my position. I have just inherited
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