| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: 'Always at nine in winter, and rise at four,' said my host,
suppressing a groan: and, as I fancied, by the motion of his arm's
shadow, dashing a tear from his eyes. 'Mr. Lockwood,' he added,
'you may go into my room: you'll only be in the way, coming down-
stairs so early: and your childish outcry has sent sleep to the
devil for me.'
'And for me, too,' I replied. 'I'll walk in the yard till
daylight, and then I'll be off; and you need not dread a repetition
of my intrusion. I'm now quite cured of seeking pleasure in
society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find
sufficient company in himself.'
Wuthering Heights |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: lament? Is this but a phantom that the high goddess
Persephone hath sent me, to the end that I may groan for
more exceeding sorrow?"
'So spake I, and my lady mother answered me anon: "Ah me,
my child, of all men most ill-fated, Persephone, the
daughter of Zeus, doth in no wise deceive thee, but even on
this wise it is with mortals when they die. For the sinews
no more bind together the flesh and the bones, but the
great force of burning fire abolishes these, so soon as the
life hath left the white bones, and the spirit like a dream
flies forth and hovers near. But haste with all thine heart
The Odyssey |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: painter and Bixiou intended, by way of teaching him to know Paris, to
make him pay the thousand francs for his breakfast at the Cafe de
Paris, for this son of the Pyrenees had never got out of that armor of
distrust which incloses the provincial in Paris.
"How can you expect me to have outstanding business at seven hundred
miles from Paris?" added Vauvinet.
"Then you refuse me positively?" asked Bixiou.
"I have twenty francs, and no more," said the young usurer.
"I'm sorry for you," said the joker. "I thought I was worth a thousand
francs."
"You are worth two hundred thousand francs," replied Vauvinet, "and
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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 Apology by Plato: sophistry, which are the stock-accusations against all philosophers when
there is nothing else to be said of them.
The second accusation he meets by interrogating Meletus, who is present and
can be interrogated. 'If he is the corrupter, who is the improver of the
citizens?' (Compare Meno.) 'All men everywhere.' But how absurd, how
contrary to analogy is this! How inconceivable too, that he should make
the citizens worse when he has to live with them. This surely cannot be
intentional; and if unintentional, he ought to have been instructed by
Meletus, and not accused in the court.
But there is another part of the indictment which says that he teaches men
not to receive the gods whom the city receives, and has other new gods.
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