| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde: Greek.
MRS. CHEVELEY. Without the dreadful disadvantage of having a
Penelope waiting at home for him.
MASON. Lord Goring.
[Enter LORD GORING. Thirty-four, but always says he is younger. A
well-bred, expressionless face. He is clever, but would not like to
be thought so. A flawless dandy, he would be annoyed if he were
considered romantic. He plays with life, and is on perfectly good
terms with the world. He is fond of being misunderstood. It gives
him a post of vantage.]
SIR ROBERT CHILTERN. Good evening, my dear Arthur! Mrs. Cheveley,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: and his contemporaries; (4) The germ of an ethical principle contained in
the notion that temperance is 'doing one's own business,' which in the
Republic (such is the shifting character of the Platonic philosophy) is
given as the definition, not of temperance, but of justice; (5) The
impatience which is exhibited by Socrates of any definition of temperance
in which an element of science or knowledge is not included; (6) The
beginning of metaphysics and logic implied in the two questions: whether
there can be a science of science, and whether the knowledge of what you
know is the same as the knowledge of what you do not know; and also in the
distinction between 'what you know' and 'that you know,' (Greek;) here too
is the first conception of an absolute self-determined science (the claims
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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 Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: "Isn't he fine, our Couture? Isn't he fine?" exclaimed Bixiou, turning
to Blondet. "He will ask us next to erect statues to him as a
benefactor of the species."
"It would lead people to conclude that the fool's money is the wise
man's patrimony by divine right," said Blondet.
"Gentlemen," cried Couture, "let us have our laugh out here to make up
for all the times when we must listen gravely to solemn nonsense
justifying laws passed on the spur of the moment."
"He is right," said Blondet. "What times we live in, gentlemen! When
the fire of intelligence appears among us, it is promptly quenched by
haphazard legislation. Almost all our lawgivers come up from little
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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 Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo: action.
"Say, Jimmy," stammered Zoie into the 'phone, "you've GOT to get
me a baby. If you don't, I'll kill myself! I will, Jimmy, I
will. You got me into this, Jimmy," she reminded him. "You've
GOT to get me out of it." And then followed pleadings and
coaxings and cajolings, and at length, a pause, during which
Jimmy was apparently able to get in a word or so. His answer was
not satisfactory to Zoie. "What!" she shrieked, tiptoeing to get
her lips closer to the receiver; then she added with conviction,
"the mother has no business to change her mind."
Apparently Jimmy maintained that the mother had changed it none
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