| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: is very difficult to view the matter clearly. The wife loved to
amuse herself, and began to go astray. He is a capable and
serious man. First, it was with the book-keeper. The husband
tried to bring her back to reason through kindness. She did not
change her conduct. She plunged into all sorts of beastliness.
She began to steal his money. He beat her, but she grew worse
and worse. To an unbaptized, to a pagan, to a Jew (saving your
permission), she went in succession for her caresses. What could
the employer do? He has dropped her entirely, and now he lives
as a bachelor. As for her, she is dragging in the depths."
"He is an imbecile," said the old man. "If from the first he had
The Kreutzer Sonata |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Middlemarch by George Eliot: be misunderstood: not, he believed, by Rosamond herself; she, he
felt sure, took everything as lightly as he intended it. She had
an exquisite tact and insight in relation to all points of manners;
but the people she lived among were blunderers and busybodies.
However, the mistake should go no farther. He resolved--and kept
his resolution--that he would not go to Mr. Vincy's except on business.
Rosamond became very unhappy. The uneasiness first stirred
by her aunt's questions grew and grew till at the end of ten
days that she had not seen Lydgate, it grew into terror at the
blank that might possibly come--into foreboding of that ready,
fatal sponge which so cheaply wipes out the hopes of mortals.
Middlemarch |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Horse's Tale by Mark Twain: part fossil; if there is any older or better stock, you will have
to look for it among the Four Hundred, I reckon. I am satisfied
with it. And am a happy horse, too, though born out of wedlock.
And now we are back at Fort Paxton once more, after a forty-day
scout, away up as far as the Big Horn. Everything quiet. Crows
and Blackfeet squabbling - as usual - but no outbreaks, and
settlers feeling fairly easy.
The Seventh Cavalry still in garrison, here; also the Ninth
Dragoons, two artillery companies, and some infantry. All glad to
see me, including General Alison, commandant. The officers' ladies
and children well, and called upon me - with sugar. Colonel Drake,
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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 Agesilaus by Xenophon: habit of selling his favour, or of playing the part of benefactor for
pay, there had been no room for a sense of indebtedness.[3] It is only
the recipient of gratuitous kindness who is ever ready to minister to
his benefactor, both in return for the kindness itself and for the
confidence implied in his selection as the fitting guardian of a good
deed on deposit.[4]
[3] Or, "no one would have felt to owe him anything."
[4] See "Cyrop." VI. i. 35; Rutherford, "New Phrynichus," p. 312.
Again, who more likely to put a gulf impassable between himself and
the sordid love of gain[5] than he, who nobly preferred to be stinted
of his dues[6] rather than snatch at the lion's share unjustly? It is
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