| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: friend. I am in despair that the letter which I hoped might reconcile
you to society by its picture of my happiness should have brought
forth only a paean of selfishness. Yes, your love is selfish; you love
Gaston far less for himself than for what he is to you.
LIV
MME. GASTON TO THE COMTESSE DE L'ESTORADE
May 20th.
Renee, calamity has come--no, that is no word for it--it has burst
like a thunderbolt over your poor Louise. You know what that means;
calamity for me is doubt; certainty would be death.
The day before yesterday, when I had finished my first toilet, I
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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 Memorabilia by Xenophon: other dainty without any plain food at all, not as a matter of
training,[9] but for the pleasure of it: has such a man earned the
title? "The rest of the world would have a poor chance against
him,"[10] some one answered. "Or," interposed another, "what if the
dainty dishes he devours are out of all proportion to the rest of his
meal--what of him?"[11]
[9] Lit. "{opson} (relish) by itself, not for the sake of training,"
etc. The English reader wil bear in mind that a raw beefsteak or
other meat prescribed by the gymnastic trainer in preference to
farinaceous food ({sitos}) would be {opson}.
[10] Or, more lit. "Hardly any one could deserve the appellation
The Memorabilia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Rig Veda: far-reaching, far-refulgent,
From well-kept household fire beam food to feed us, and measure
out to
us abundant glory.
3 The Sage of men, the Lord of human races, pure, purifying
Agni,
balmed with butter,
Him the Omniscient as your Priest ye stablish: he wins among
the Gods
things worth the choosing.
4 Agni, enjoy, of one accord with Ila, striving in rivalry
The Rig Veda |
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 Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley: wide, to find Tom's father and mother: but he might have looked
till Doomsday for them, for one was dead, and the other was in
Botany Bay. And the little girl would not play with her dolls for
a whole week, and never forgot poor little Tom. And soon my lady
put a pretty little tombstone over Tom's shell in the little
churchyard in Vendale, where the old dalesmen all sleep side by
side between the lime-stone crags. And the dame decked it with
garlands every Sunday, till she grew so old that she could not stir
abroad; then the little children decked it, for her. And always
she sang an old old song, as she sat spinning what she called her
wedding-dress. The children could not understand it, but they
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