| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: and issuing from the lower ranks, presented the types and the
absurdities of the lesser bourgeoisie. Though all success, especially
if won from distant sources, seems to presuppose some genuine merit,
Minard was really an inflated balloon. Expressing himself in empty
phrases, mistaking sycophancy for politeness, and wordiness for wit,
he uttered his commonplaces with a brisk assurance that passed for
eloquence. Certain words which said nothing but answered all things,--
progress, steam, bitumen, National guard, order, democratic element,
spirit of association, legality, movement, resistance,--seemed, as
each political phase developed, to have been actually made for Minard,
whose talk was a paraphrase on the ideas of his newspaper. Julien
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: of them in the introduction. It may be remarked that Protagoras is
consistently presented to us throughout as the teacher of moral and
political virtue; there is no allusion to the theories of sensation which
are attributed to him in the Theaetetus and elsewhere, or to his denial of
the existence of the gods in a well-known fragment ascribed to him; he is
the religious rather than the irreligious teacher in this Dialogue. Also
it may be observed that Socrates shows him as much respect as is consistent
with his own ironical character; he admits that the dialectic which has
overthrown Protagoras has carried himself round to a conclusion opposed to
his first thesis. The force of argument, therefore, and not Socrates or
Protagoras, has won the day.
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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 Koran: sinful misbeliever.
Verily, those who believe, and act righteously, and are steadfast in
prayer, and give alms, theirs is their hire with their Lord; there
is no fear on them, nor shall they grieve.
O ye who believe! fear God, and remit the balance of usury, if ye be
believers; and if ye will not do it, then hearken to the
proclamation of war from God and His Apostle; but if ye repent, your
capital is yours. Ye shall not wrong, nor shall ye be wronged.
And if it be one in difficulties, then wait for easy
circumstances; but that ye remit it as alms is better for you, if ye
did but know.
The Koran |
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 The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: curving stairway to his own room.
Meantime John Weightman sat in his carved chair in the Jacobean
dining-room. He felt strangely old and dull. The portraits of
beautiful women by Lawrence and Reynolds and Raeburn, which had
often
seemed like real company to him, looked remote and uninteresting.
He fancied something cold and almost unfriendly in their
expression,
as if they were staring through him or beyond him. They cared
nothing for
his principles, his hopes, his disappointments, his successes;
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