| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: XVII
The third seemed not a troop or squadron small,
But an huge host; nor seemed it so much grain
In Egypt grew as to sustain them all;
Yet from one town thereof came all that train,
A town in people to huge shires equal,
That did a thousand streets and more contain,
Great Caire it hight, whose commons from each side
Came swarming out to war, Campson their guide.
XVIII
Next under Gazel marched they that plough
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: bad.
I do not know, Socrates, he said, whether I can venture to assert in that
unqualified manner that the pleasant is the good and the painful the evil.
Having regard not only to my present answer, but also to the whole of my
life, I shall be safer, if I am not mistaken, in saying that there are some
pleasant things which are not good, and that there are some painful things
which are good, and some which are not good, and that there are some which
are neither good nor evil.
And you would call pleasant, I said, the things which participate in
pleasure or create pleasure?
Certainly, he said.
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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 Astoria by Washington Irving: their destination at different times, bearing tidings to Mr.
Astor of the unfortunate termination of his enterprise.
That gentleman, however, was not disposed, even yet, to give the
matter up as lost. On the contrary, his spirit was roused by what
he considered ungenerous and unmerited conduct on the part of the
Northwest Company. "After their treatment of me," said he, in a
letter to Mr. Hunt, "I have no idea of remaining quiet and idle."
He determined, therefore, as soon as circumstances would permit,
to resume his enterprise.
At the return of peace, Astoria, with the adjacent country,
reverted to the United States by the treaty of Ghent, on the
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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 The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: perhaps with a better grace; but she declared that Emilie, at any
rate, should marry in such a way as to satisfy the pride she had
unfortunately contributed to foster in the girl's young soul.
Thus events, which ought to have brought joy into the family, had
introduced a small leaven of discord. The Receiver-General and the
young lawyer were the objects of a ceremonious formality which the
Countess and Emilie contrived to create. This etiquette soon found
even ampler opportunity for the display of domestic tyranny; for
Lieutenant-General de Fontaine married Mademoiselle Mongenod, the
daughter of a rich banker; the President very sensibly found a wife in
a young lady whose father, twice or thrice a millionaire, had traded
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