| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: "Oh, as for those," said Laurence, "they are very much alike. You hear
the will; you can now hear of its fulfilment. In future I shall have
no secrets from any one."
1794, Andernach. Before the battle.
My dear Laurence,--I love you for life, and I wish you to know it.
But you ought also to know, in case I die, that my brother, Paul-
Marie, loves you as much as I love you. My only consolation in
dying would be the thought that you might some day make my brother
your husband without being forced to see me die of jealousy--which
must surely happen if, both of us being alive, you preferred him
to me. After all, that preference seems natural, for he is,
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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 A Treatise on Parents and Children by George Bernard Shaw: will not learn anything unless they are so cruelly beaten that they
make desperate efforts to memorize words and phrases to escape
flagellation. It is a ghastly business, quite beyond words, this
schooling.
And now I hear cries of protest arising all round. First my own
schoolmasters, or their ghosts, asking whether I was cruelly beaten at
school? No; but then I did not learn anything at school. Dr
Johnson's schoolmaster presumably did care enough whether Sam learned
anything to beat him savagely enough to force him to lame his mind
--for Johnson's great mind _was_ lamed--by learning his lessons. None
of my schoolmasters really cared a rap (or perhaps it would be fairer
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