| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Warlord of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: steadily across in my direction.
As they advanced I moved my boat farther and farther in
beneath the overhanging wall, but at last it became evident that
their craft was holding the same course. The five paddlers sent
the larger boat ahead at a speed that taxed my energies to equal.
Every instant I expected to feel my prow crash against solid rock.
The light from the river was no longer visible, but ahead I
saw the faint tinge of a distant radiance, and still the water
before me was open.
The Warlord of Mars |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: mind. He is conscious that women are half the human race, in some respects
the more important half (Laws); and for the sake both of men and women he
desires to raise the woman to a higher level of existence. He brings, not
sentiment, but philosophy to bear upon a question which both in ancient and
modern times has been chiefly regarded in the light of custom or feeling.
The Greeks had noble conceptions of womanhood in the goddesses Athene and
Artemis, and in the heroines Antigone and Andromache. But these ideals had
no counterpart in actual life. The Athenian woman was in no way the equal
of her husband; she was not the entertainer of his guests or the mistress
of his house, but only his housekeeper and the mother of his children. She
took no part in military or political matters; nor is there any instance in
The Republic |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: own free-will, and we now elect a man of Arcis, in order to show that
the old spirit of 1789, to which you owe your fortune, still lives in
the land of Danton, Malin, Grevin, Pigoult, Marion--That is all!"
And the old man sat down. Whereupon a great hubbub arose. Achille
opened his mouth to reply. Beauvisage, who would not have thought
himself chairman unless he had rung his bell, increased the racket,
and called for silence. It was then two o'clock.
"I shall take the liberty to observe to the honorable Colonel Giguet,
whose feelings are easily understood, that he took upon himself to
speak, which is against parliamentary usage," said Achille Pigoult.
"I think it is not necessary to call the colonel to order," said the
|
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 Coxon Fund by Henry James: England at all while the engagement stood the only proper place for
her was under Lady Maddock's wing. Now that she was unfortunate
and relatively poor, perhaps her prospective sister-in-law would be
wholly won over.
There would be much to say, if I had space, about the way her
behaviour, as I caught gleams of it, ministered to the image that
had taken birth in my mind, to my private amusement, while that
other night I listened to George Gravener in the railway-carriage.
I watched her in the light of this queer possibility--a formidable
thing certainly to meet--and I was aware that it coloured,
extravagantly perhaps, my interpretation of her very looks and
|
