| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: impossible to destroy them.
This sketch of a woman who was admirably natural gives only a faint
idea of her. It would need the pencil of an Ingres to render the pride
of that brow, with its wealth of hair, the dignity of that glance, and
the thoughts betrayed by the changing colors of her cheeks. In her
were all things; poets could have found an Agnes Sorel and a Joan of
Arc, also the woman unknown, the Soul within that form, the soul of
Eve, the knowledge of the treasures of good and the riches of evil,
error and resignation, crime and devotion, the Donna Julia and the
Haidee of Lord Byron.
The former guardsman stayed, with apparent impertinence, after the
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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 Professor by Charlotte Bronte: behind time, waiting for you--that is all. I thought you must
be coming by the eight o'clock coach.'
"I expressed regret that he had had to wait; he made no answer,
but stirred the fire, as if to cover a movement of impatience;
then he scanned me again.
"I felt an inward satisfaction that I had not, in the first
moment of meeting, betrayed any warmth, any enthusiasm; that I
had saluted this man with a quiet and steady phlegm.
"'Have you quite broken with Tynedale and Seacombe?' he asked
hastily.
"'I do not think I shall have any further communication with
The Professor |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: counsel and advise with me.
LYSIMACHUS: But this is our proper business; and yours as well as ours,
for I reckon you as one of us. Please then to take my place, and find out
from Nicias and Laches what we want to know, for the sake of the youths,
and talk and consult with them: for I am old, and my memory is bad; and I
do not remember the questions which I am going to ask, or the answers to
them; and if there is any interruption I am quite lost. I will therefore
beg of you to carry on the proposed discussion by your selves; and I will
listen, and Melesias and I will act upon your conclusions.
SOCRATES: Let us, Nicias and Laches, comply with the request of Lysimachus
and Melesias. There will be no harm in asking ourselves the question which
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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 The Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: became so restless as to move and cause the pillow to roll
from under their head they might get up and study.
The child once more took the blocks and illustrated how one who
was so poor as to be unable to furnish himself with candles,
confined a fire-fly in a gauze lantern using that instead of a
lamp. At the same time he explained that another who was perhaps
not able to afford the gauze lantern, studied by the light of a
glowworm.
"K'ang Heng," said the child, as he put the blocks together in a
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