| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: fantastic name of "crystallization" to the process which Madame de
Listomere's thoughts went through before, during, and after this
evening.
Four days later Eugene was scolding his valet.
"Ah ca! Joseph; I shall soon have to send you away, my lad."
"What is it, monsieur?"
"You do nothing but make mistakes. Where did you carry those letters I
gave you Saturday?"
Joseph became stolid. Like a statue in some cathedral porch, he stood
motionless, entirely absorbed in the labors of imagination. Suddenly
he smiled idiotically, and said:--
|
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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: they are sources of working-power, but not otherwise. Let us for
the sake of simplicity confine our attention to the case of
attraction. The attraction exerted between the earth and a body at
a distance from the earth's surface is a source of working-power;
because the body can be moved by the attraction, and in falling to
the earth can perform work. When it rests upon the earth's surface
it is not a source of power or energy, because it can fall no
further. But though it has ceased to be a source of energy, the
attraction of gravity still acts as a force, which holds the earth
and weight together.
The same remarks apply to attracting atoms and molecules. As long
|
