| 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: which Gobseck undertook to return the diamonds to the Count.
" 'What waste!' exclaimed he as he put his signature to the agreement.
'How is it possible to bridge such a gulf?'
" 'Have you many children, sir?' Gobseck asked gravely.
"The Count winced at the question; it was as if the old money-lender,
like an experienced physician, had put his finger at once on the sore
spot. The Comtesse's husband did not reply.
" 'Well,' said Gobseck, taking the pained silence for answer, 'I know
your story by heart. The woman is a fiend, but perhaps you love her
still; I can well believe it; she made an impression on me. Perhaps,
too, you would rather save your fortune, and keep it for one or two of
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: disciplined murderers," Tolstoy was an Anarchist;
but in that he reprobated the methods of violence,
no matter how righteous the cause at stake, and
upheld by word and deed the gospel of Love and
submission, he cannot be judged guilty of Anar-
chism in its full significance. He could not, how-
ever, suppress the sympathy which he felt with
those whose resistance to oppression brought them
into deadly conflict with autocracy. He found
in the Caucasian chieftain, Hadji Murat, a sub-
ject full of human interest and dramatic possibili-
The Forged Coupon |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Anthem by Ayn Rand: on, nor preserve what they had received.
Thus did all thought, all science,
all wisdom perish on earth. Thus did men--
men with nothing to offer save their great number--
lost the steel towers, the flying ships,
the power wires, all the things they had
not created and could never keep. Perhaps,
later, some men had been born with the
mind and the courage to recover these
things which were lost; perhaps these men
came before the Councils of Scholars.
Anthem |
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 Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: From my Lord Castlemain's, house and the rest of the fine dwellings
on that side of the forest, for there are several very good houses
at Wanstead, only that they seem all swallowed up in the lustre of
his lordship's palace, I say, from thence, I went south, towards
the great road over that part of the forest called the Flats, where
we see a very beautiful but retired and rural seat of Mr.
Lethulier's, eldest son of the late Sir John Lethulier, of Lusum,
in Kent, of whose family I shall speak when I come on that side.
By this turn I came necessarily on to Stratford, where I set out.
And thus having finished my first circuit, I conclude my first
letter, and am,
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