| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: Geneva nine years before. At the foot of it Claire de Bourgogne had
written, "Monsieur, you are free."
M. de Nueil went to his mother at Manerville. In less than three weeks
he married Mlle. Stephanie de la Rodiere.
If this commonplace story of real life ended here, it would be to some
extent a sort of mystification. The first man you meet can tell you a
better. But the widespread fame of the catastrophe (for, unhappily,
this is a true tale), and all the memories which it may arouse in
those who have known the divine delights of infinite passion, and lost
them by their own deed, or through the cruelty of fate,--these things
may perhaps shelter the story from criticism.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: For 'tis their nature to."
"Oh, yes, I know that," said Tattine, "and I don't think it's all quĦte true;
our dogs don't bite (I suppose it means biting people), bad as they are."
"No; I've always thought myself that line was not quite fair to the dogs
either, but the verses mean that we mustn't blame animals for doing things
that it is their nature to do."
"And yet, Grandma, I am not allowed to do naughty things because it is my
nature to."
"Ah, but, Tattine, there lies the beautiful difference. You can be reasoned
with, and made to understand things, so that you can change your nature--I
mean the part of you that makes you sometimes love to do naughty things.
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: That done, some worthless slave of thine I'll slay.
To kill thine honour with thy life's decay;
And in thy dead arms do I mean to place him,
Swearing I slew him, seeing thee embrace him.
'So thy surviving husband shall remain
The scornful mark of every open eye;
Thy kinsmen hang their heads at this disdain,
Thy issue blurr'd with nameless bastardy:
And thou, the author of their obloquy,
Shalt have thy trespass cited up in rhymes,
And sung by children in succeeding times.
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: censure or approbation forthwith arise in the community, which
are peculiar to itself, and which are styled honor by the members
of that community. Now suppose that in this same nation a caste
arises, which, in its turn, stands apart from all the other
classes, and contracts certain peculiar wants, which give rise in
their turn to special opinions. The honor of this caste,
composed of a medley of the peculiar notions of the nation, and
the still more peculiar notions of the caste, will be as remote
as it is possible to conceive from the simple and general
opinions of men.
Having reached this extreme point of the argument, I now
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