| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: even felt doubts at times as to his sex. If all usurers are like this
one, I maintain that they belong to the neuter gender.
"Did he adhere to his mother's religion? Did he look on Gentiles as
his legitimate prey? Had he turned Roman Catholic, Lutheran,
Mahometan, Brahmin, or what not? I never knew anything whatsoever
about his religious opinions, and so far as I could see, he was
indifferent rather than incredulous.
"One evening I went in to see this man who had turned himself to gold;
the usurer, whom his victims (his clients, as he styled them) were
wont to call Daddy Gobseck, perhaps ironically, perhaps by way of
antiphrasis. He was sitting in his armchair, motionless as a statue,
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy: She asked then if she might ride, and then down she fell
in a faint. I picked her up and put her in, and there
she has been ever since. She has cried a good deal,
but she has hardly spoke; all she has told me being
that she was to have been married this morning.
I tried to get her to eat something, but she couldn't;
and at last she fell asleep."
"Let me see her at once," said Mrs. Yeobright,
hastening towards the van.
The reddleman followed with the lantern, and, stepping
up first, assisted Mrs. Yeobright to mount beside him.
Return of the Native |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: history.
He starts by accepting the general principle that all things are
fated to decay (which I noticed in the case of Plato), and that 'as
iron produces rust and as wood breeds the animals that destroy it,
so every state has in it the seeds of its own corruption.' He is
not, however, content to rest there, but proceeds to deal with the
more immediate causes of revolutions, which he says are twofold in
nature, either external or internal. Now, the former, depending as
they do on the synchronous conjunction of other events outside the
sphere of scientific estimation, are from their very character
incalculable; but the latter, though assuming many forms, always
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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 Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: originally by a mixed force from Savaii and Tuamasanga, the
victors, instead of completing fresh defences or pursuing their
advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their victory with
impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses smote
them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine,
where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken,
again lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought
hand to hand in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed
rifles. The sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even
those who were engaged; and the butcher's bill was counted
extraordinary by Samoans. On December 1st the women of either side
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