| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: Soc. Yes, that is quite a proper state of things, I should imagine.
Isch. And to bring about this proper state of things, do you maintain
there can be any other better system than that of turning the soil
over as many times as possible in summer?
Soc. On the contrary, I know precisely that for either object, whether
to bring the weeds and quitch grass to the surface and to wither them
by scorching heat, or to expose the earth itself to the sun's baking
rays, there can be nothing better than to plough the soil up with a
pair of oxen during mid-day in midsummer.
Isch. And if a gang of men set to, to break and make this fallow with
the mattock, it is transparent that their business is to separate 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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: were going to play off a trick on me; and now, thanks to you, I shall
have a good laugh at their expense to-night.'
"There was something frightful about the old man's ecstasy. It was the
one occasion when he opened his heart to me; and that flash of joy,
swift though it was, will never be effaced from my memory.
" 'Favor me so far as to stay here,' he added. 'I am armed, and a sure
shot. I have gone tiger-hunting, and fought on the deck when there was
nothing for it but to win or die; but I don't care to trust yonder
elegant scoundrel.'
"He sat down again in his armchair before his bureau, and his face
grew pale and impassive as before.
Gobseck |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: of clergymen, it is seen by too many to leave any deficiency
of information."
"Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination,
are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency
of information, or (smiling) of something else.
Your uncle, and his brother admirals, perhaps knew little
of clergymen beyond the chaplains whom, good or bad,
they were always wishing away."
"Poor William! He has met with great kindness from
the chaplain of the Antwerp," was a tender apostrophe
of Fanny's, very much to the purpose of her own feelings
Mansfield Park |
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 Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: paper, thriftily abridging every word, and leaving scarce an atom
of margin), and read, not without some emotion, the following
words: "I enjoin my nephew and heir, John Melmoth, to remove,
destroy, or cause to be destroyed, the portrait inscribed J.
Melmoth, 1646, hanging in my closet. I also enjoin him to search
for a manuscript, which I think he will find in the third and
lowest left-hand drawer of the mahogany chest standing under that
portrait,--it is among some papers of no value, such as manuscript
sermons, and pamphlets on the improvement of Ireland, and such
stuff; he will distinguish it by its being tied round with a black
tape, and the paper being very moldy and discolored. He may read
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