| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: respected the internal travail of his soul. Till half-past twelve
Gambara sat so perfectly motionless that the frequenters of the opera
house took him, no doubt, for what he was--a man drunk.
On their return, Andrea began to attack Meyerbeer's work, in order to
wake up Gambara, who sat sunk in the half-torpid state common in
drunkards.
"What is there in that incoherent score to reduce you to a condition
of somnambulism?" asked Andrea, when they got out at his house. "The
story of /Robert le Diable/, to be sure, is not devoid of interest,
and Holtei has worked it out with great skill in a drama that is very
well written and full of strong and pathetic situations; but the
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: "DON'T!" May Bartram repeated.
She spoke it in a tone so special, in spite of her weakness, that
he stared an instant--stared as if some light, hitherto hidden, had
shimmered across his vision. Darkness again closed over it, but
the gleam had already become for him an idea. "Because I haven't
the right--?"
"Don't KNOW--when you needn't," she mercifully urged. "You
needn't--for we shouldn't."
"Shouldn't?" If he could but know what she meant!
"No--it's too much."
"Too much?" he still asked but with a mystification that was the
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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 Protagoras by Plato: and when he knows justice (which is the health of states), and is of sound
mind, I will find no fault with him, for I am not given to finding fault,
and there are innumerable fools'
(implying that if he delighted in censure he might have abundant
opportunity of finding fault).
'All things are good with which evil is unmingled.'
In these latter words he does not mean to say that all things are good
which have no evil in them, as you might say 'All things are white which
have no black in them,' for that would be ridiculous; but he means to say
that he accepts and finds no fault with the moderate or intermediate state.
('I do not hope' he says, 'to find a perfectly blameless man among those
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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 Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling: within twenty miles of here. But Parnesius must stay
with them in hospital, else they would go mad with fear. "
"'I see," said Maximus. "Like everything else in the
world, it is one man's work. You, I think, are that one man."
"'Pertinax and I are one," I said.
"'As you please, so long as you work. Now, Allo, you
know that I mean your people no harm. Leave us to talk
together," said Maximus.
"'No need!" said Allo. "I am the corn between the
upper and lower millstones. I must know what the lower
millstone means to do. These boys have spoken the truth
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