| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: on a mouse.
D'Arthez, for the first time, after sixty days of protocols, ventured
to take that warm and perfumed hand, and press it to his lips with a
long-drawn kiss, extending from the wrist to the tip of the fingers,
which made the princess augur well of literature. She thought to
herself that men of genius must know how to love with more perfection
than conceited fops, men of the world, diplomatists, and even
soldiers, although such beings have nothing else to do. She was a
connoisseur, and knew very well that the capacity for love reveals
itself chiefly in mere nothings. A woman well informed in such matters
can read her future in a simple gesture; just as Cuvier could say from
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: four horses through the valleys and over the hills and unploughed
fields. At this Count Angres is much distressed, when he sees
those whom he held dear dragged around outside the town. And his
people, too, are much dismayed, but in spite of the anxiety which
they feel, they have no mind to yield the place. They must needs
defend themselves, for the King makes it plain to all that he is
angry, and ill-disposed, and they see that if he should lay hands
upon them he would make them die a shameful death.
(Vv.1515-1552.) When the four had been torn asunder and their
limbs lay strewn upon the field, then the assault begins. But
all their labour is in vain, for no matter how much they cast and
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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 Charmides by Plato: exhausting by all these terms the various associations of the word. It may
be described as 'mens sana in corpore sano,' the harmony or due proportion
of the higher and lower elements of human nature which 'makes a man his own
master,' according to the definition of the Republic. In the accompanying
translation the word has been rendered in different places either
Temperance or Wisdom, as the connection seemed to require: for in the
philosophy of Plato (Greek) still retains an intellectual element (as
Socrates is also said to have identified (Greek) with (Greek): Xen. Mem.)
and is not yet relegated to the sphere of moral virtue, as in the
Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle.
The beautiful youth, Charmides, who is also the most temperate of human
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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 Master Key by L. Frank Baum: concentrated food tablets from his pocket.
"Eat these," he said, offering one of each to the sailors.
At first they could not understand that these small tablets would be
able to allay the pangs of hunger; but when Rob explained their
virtues the men ate them greedily. Within a few moments they were so
greatly restored to strength and courage that their eyes brightened,
their sunken cheeks flushed, and they were able to converse with their
benefactor with calmness and intelligence.
Then the boy sat beside them upon the grass and told them the story of
his acquaintance with the Demon and of all his adventures since he had
come into possession of the wonderful electric contrivances. In his
The Master Key |
