| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: discriminate by the sense of sight between a number of Polygons
of high rank moving in different directions, as for example in
a ball-room or conversazione -- must be of a nature to task
the angularity of the most intellectual, and amply justify
the rich endowments of the Learned Professors of Geometry,
both Static and Kinetic, in the illustrious University of Wentbridge,
where the Science and Art of Sight Recognition are regularly taught
to large classes of the ELITE of the States.
It is only a few of the scions of our noblest and wealthiest houses,
who are able to give the time and money necessary for the thorough
prosecution of this noble and valuable Art. Even to me,
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: Hippolyte remained at home three days. During this retirement his
idle fancy recalled vividly, bit by bit, the details of the scene
that had ensued on his fainting fit. The young girl's profile was
clearly projected against the darkness of his inward vision; he
saw once more the mother's faded features, or he felt the touch
of Adelaide's hands. He remembered some gesture which at first
had not greatly struck him, but whose exquisite grace was thrown
into relief by memory; then an attitude, or the tones of a
melodious voice, enhanced by the distance of remembrance,
suddenly rose before him, as objects plunging to the bottom of
deep waters come back to the surface.
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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 Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: world through correspondence; a man hitherto personally unknown to
him. This friend, the head of a rather important house in Nuremburg,
was a stout worthy German, a man of taste and erudition, above all a
man of pipes, having a fine, broad, Nuremburgian face, with a square
open forehead adorned by a few sparse locks of yellowish hair. He was
the type of the sons of that pure and noble Germany, so fertile in
honorable natures, whose peaceful manners and morals have never been
lost, even after seven invasions.
This stranger laughed with simplicity, listened attentively, and drank
remarkably well, seeming to like champagne as much perhaps as he liked
his straw-colored Johannisburger. His name was Hermann, which is that
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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 Purse by Honore de Balzac: woods the most impossible to imitate. But the slippery red
quarries, the shabby little rugs in front of the chairs, and all
the furniture, shone with the hard rubbing cleanliness which
lends a treacherous lustre to old things by making their defects,
their age, and their long service still more conspicuous. An
indescribable odor pervaded the room, a mingled smell of the
exhalations from the lumber room, and the vapors of the dining-
room, with those from the stairs, though the window was partly
open. The air from the street fluttered the dusty curtains, which
were carefully drawn so as to hide the window bay, where former
tenants had testified to their presence by various ornamental
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