| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: ce soir. Ce n'est pas dans vos habitudes. Mais il est tard.
Rentrons. Vous n'oubliez pas qu'au lever du soleil nous allons tous
e la chasse. Aux ambassadeurs de Cesar il faut faire tout honneur,
n'est-ce pas?
LE SECOND SOLDAT. Comme il a l'air sombre, le tetrarque.
LE PREMIER SOLDAT. Oui, il a l'air sombre.
HERODE. Salome, Salome, dansez pour moi. Je vous supplie de danser
pour moi. Ce soir je suis triste. Oui, je suis tres triste ce
soir. Quand je suis entre ici, j'ai glisse dans le sang, ce qui est
d'un mauvais presage, et j'ai entendu, je suis sur que j'ai entendu
un battement d'ailes dans l'air, un battement d'ailes gigantesques.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: It is this idea which underlies and issues from a romance,
this something which it is the function of that form of art
to create, this epical value, that I propose chiefly to seek
and, as far as may be, to throw into relief, in the present
study. It is thus, I believe, that we shall see most clearly
the great stride that Hugo has taken beyond his predecessors,
and how, no longer content with expressing more or less
abstract relations of man to man, he has set before himself
the task of realising, in the language of romance, much of
the involution of our complicated lives.
This epical value is not to be found, let it be understood,
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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 Sportsman by Xenophon: enemy their footsteps will not falter nor fail: straight as an arrow
they will follow the flying foe, on every kind of ground, through long
habituation.[3] Or if their own army encounter a reverse on wooded and
precipitous ground beset with difficulties, these will be the men to
save themselves with honour and to extricate their friends; since long
acquaintance with the business of the chase has widened their
intelligence.[4]
[1] Or, "Respecting the methods employed in different forms of the
chase, I have said my say." As to the genuineness of this and the
following chapter see L. Dind. ad loc.; K. Lincke, "Xenophon's
Dialog." {peri oikonomias}, p. 132.
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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 Protagoras by Plato: answer: and when I have answered as many questions as he likes to ask, let
him in like manner answer me; and if he seems to be not very ready at
answering the precise question asked of him, you and I will unite in
entreating him, as you entreated me, not to spoil the discussion. And this
will require no special arbiter--all of you shall be arbiters.
This was generally approved, and Protagoras, though very much against his
will, was obliged to agree that he would ask questions; and when he had put
a sufficient number of them, that he would answer in his turn those which
he was asked in short replies. He began to put his questions as follows:--
I am of opinion, Socrates, he said, that skill in poetry is the principal
part of education; and this I conceive to be the power of knowing what
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