| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: were so wretchedly literal. When they tastelessly enquired why
publication hadn't ensued I was tempted to ask who in the world had
ever been so published. Nature herself had brought him out in
voluminous form, and the money was simply a deposit on borrowing
the work.
CHAPTER V
I was doubtless often a nuisance to my friends in those years; but
there were sacrifices I declined to make, and I never passed the
hat to George Gravener. I never forgot our little discussion in
Ebury Street, and I think it stuck in my throat to have to treat
him to the avowal I had found so easy to Mss Anvoy. It had cost me
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: tions of the way they had come from that preposterous
wedding. Many times he went abroad, and nosed his
way back to, the trail, furious.
At last, when he reached the dark, calamitous building
in which his madness had culminated, and found the
black hallway, he dashed down it, perceiving no light
or sound. But he raised his voice, hailing loudly; reckless
of everything but that he should find the old mischief-
maker with the eyes that looked too far awav to see the
disaster he had wrought. The door opened, and in the
stream of light Father Rogan stood, his book in hand,
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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 Memorabilia by Xenophon: say with truth.
[25] Aspasia, daughter of Axiochus, of Miletus. See "Econ." iii. 14;
Plat. "Menex." 235 E; Aesch. Socrat. ap. Cic. "de Invent." I.
xxxi. 51. See Grote, "H. G." vi. 132 foll.; Cobet, "Pros. Xen."
[26] Reading {ouk ethelein epainein}, or if {ouk ophelein epainousas}
with Kuhner transl. "Good matchmakers, she told me, have to
consult truth when reporting favourably of any one: then indeed
they are terribly clever at bringing people together: whereas
false flatterers do no good; their dupes," etc.
Cri. Really, Socrates, you are a wonderfully good friend to me--in so
far as I have any merit which will entitle me to win a friend, you
The Memorabilia |
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 Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: for themselves a brilliant horoscope; their magic consists in taking
their dreams for reality; secretly, in their long meditations, they
resolve to give their heart and hand to none but the man possessing
this or the other qualification; and they paint in fancy a model to
which, whether or no, the future lover must correspond. After some
little experience of life, and the serious reflections that come with
years, by dint of seeing the world and its prosaic round, by dint of
observing unhappy examples, the brilliant hues of their ideal are
extinguished. Then, one fine day, in the course of events, they are
quite astonished to find themselves happy without the nuptial poetry
of their day-dreams. It was on the strength of that poetry that
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