| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Study of a Woman by Honore de Balzac: germs of flattering hopes. Beaux, wits, and fops, men whose sentiments
are fed by sucking their canes, those of a great name, or a great
fame, those of the highest or the lowest rank in her own world, they
all blanch before her. She has conquered the right to converse as long
and as often as she chooses with the men who seem to her agreeable,
without being entered on the tablets of gossip. Certain coquettish
women are capable of following a plan of this kind for seven years in
order to gratify their fancies later; but to suppose any such
reservations in the Marquise de Listomere would be to calumniate her.
I have had the happiness of knowing this phoenix. She talks well; I
know how to listen; consequently I please her, and I go to her
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: they never after made any inroad nor depredation upon their neighbors.
After this, Hannibal came into Italy, who, at his first entrance, having
gained a great battle near the river Trebia, traversed all Tuscany with
his victorious army, and, desolating the country round about, filled
Rome itself with astonishment and terror. Besides the more common signs
of thunder and lightning then happening, the report of several unheard
of and utterly strange portents much increased the popular
consternation. For it was said that some targets sweated blood; that at
Antium, when they reaped their corn, many of the ears were filled with
blood; that it had rained redhot stones; that the Falerians had seen the
heavens open and several scrolls falling down, in one of which was
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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 Z. Marcas by Honore de Balzac: to the superiority of his erewhile counselor; he pledged himself to
enable Marcas to remain in office, to be elected deputy; then he
offered him a high appointment, promising him that he, the speaker,
would thenceforth be the subordinate of a man whose subaltern he was
only worthy to be. He was in the newly-formed ministry, and he would
not return to power unless Marcas had a post in proportion to his
merit; he had already made it a condition, Marcas had been regarded as
indispensable.
Marcas refused.
"I have never before been in a position to keep my promises; here is
an opportunity of proving myself faithful to my word, and you fail
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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 Charmides by Plato: 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
beings, is asked by Socrates, 'What is Temperance?' He answers
characteristically, (1) 'Quietness.' 'But Temperance is a fine and noble
thing; and quietness in many or most cases is not so fine a thing as
quickness.' He tries again and says (2) that temperance is modesty. But
this again is set aside by a sophistical application of Homer: for
temperance is good as well as noble, and Homer has declared that 'modesty
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