| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: secret activity. His conduct at the time of the affair at Walcheren
was that of a consummate soldier, a great politician, a far-seeing
administrator. He was the only real minister that Napoleon ever had.
And you all know how he then alarmed him.
"Fouche, Massena and the Prince," continued de Marsay, reflectively,
"are the three greatest men, the wisest heads in diplomacy, war, and
government, that I have ever known. If Napoleon had frankly allied
them with his work there would no longer be a Europe, only a vast
French Empire. Fouche did not finally detach himself from Napoleon
until he saw Sieyes and the Prince de Talleyrand shoved aside.
"He now went to work, and in three days (all the while hiding the hand
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin: into the printing-house, continu'd the quarrel, high words pass'd
on both sides, he gave me the quarter's warning we had stipulated,
expressing a wish that he had not been oblig'd to so long a warning.
I told him his wish was unnecessary, for I would leave him that instant;
and so, taking my hat, walk'd out of doors, desiring Meredith,
whom I saw below, to take care of some things I left, and bring
them to my lodgings.
Meredith came accordingly in the evening, when we talked my affair over.
He had conceiv'd a great regard for me, and was very unwilling
that I should leave the house while he remain'd in it. He dissuaded
me from returning to my native country, which I began to think of;
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: me!"
"And if thou hast thus redeemed thy pledge," said the Dwarf, "I
will not forfeit mine. The heart and the door that are shut
against every other earthly being, shall be open to thee and to
thy sorrows."
She heard him move in his hut, and presently afterwards strike a
light. One by one, bolt and bar were then withdrawn, the heart
of Isabella throbbing higher as these obstacles to their meeting
were successively removed. The door opened, and the Solitary
stood before her, his uncouth form and features illuminated by
the iron lamp which he held in his hand.
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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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: Isaiah. In this matter we must not forget that all our great
poets have borne great names. Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare,
Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Shelley - what a constellation of
lordly words! Not a single common-place name among them -
not a Brown, not a Jones, not a Robinson; they are all names
that one would stop and look at on a door-plate. Now,
imagine if PEPYS had tried to clamber somehow into the
enclosure of poetry, what a blot would that word have made
upon the list! The thing was impossible. In the first place
a certain natural consciousness that men would have held him
down to the level of his name, would have prevented him from
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