| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: terrestrial space, "if we have not sinned against thy divine
commandments, if we have not offended the Church, not yet the king,
we, who are one and the same being, in whom love shines with the light
that thou hast given to the pearl of the sea, be merciful unto us, and
let us not be parted either in this world or in that which is to
come."
"Mother!" added Etienne, "who art in heaven, obtain from the Virgin
that if we cannot--Gabrielle and I--be happy here below we may at
least die together, and without suffering. Call us, and we will go to
thee."
Then, having recited their evening prayers, Gabrielle related her
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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 American by Henry James: a month ago."
"Oh, horrors! I'll agree to anything!" cried Newman.
Mr. Babcock buried his head in both hands. At last looking up,
"I don't think you appreciate my position," he said.
"I try to arrive at the truth about everything. And then you
go too fast. For me, you are too passionate, too extravagant.
I feel as if I ought to go over all this ground we have
traversed again, by myself, alone. I am afraid I have made
a great many mistakes."
"Oh, you needn't give so many reasons," said Newman.
"You are simply tired of my company. You have a good right to be."
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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 King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Should, if a coward heard her speak these words,
Infuse his breast with magnanimity,
And make him, naked, foil a man at arms.
I speak not this as doubting any here;
For, did I but suspect a fearful man,
He should have leave to go away betimes,
Lest in our need he might infect another
And make him of the like spirit to himself.
If any such be here--as God forbid!--
Let him depart before we need his help.
OXFORD.
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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 New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: The other merely needs jealousy and bate, of which there are great
and easily accessible reservoirs in every human heart. . . .
I remember that vision of endless, narrow, jealous individuality
very vividly. A seething limitlessness it became at last, like a
waste place covered by crawling locusts that men sweep up by the
sackload and drown by the million in ditches. . . .
Grotesquely against it came the lean features, the sidelong shy
movements of Edward Crampton, seated in a circle of talkers close at
hand. I had a whiff of his strained, unmusical voice, and behold!
he was saying something about the "Will of the People. . . ."
The immense and wonderful disconnectednesses of human life! I
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