| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: "And how knew you that he carried it? Did you learn that, too, from
Mr. Wilding's indiscretion?"
"Your Grace has said it."
"`Slife! What an impudent rogue have we here!" cried the angry Duke,
who conceived that Richard was purposely dealing in effrontery. "Mr.
Trenchard, I do think we are wasting time. Be so good as to confound
them both with the truth of this matter."
"That letter," said Trenchard, "was delivered to them at the Hare and
Hounds, here at Taunton, by a gentleman who put up at the inn, and was
there joined by Mr. Westmacott and Sir Rowland Blake. They opened the
conversation with certain cant phrases very clearly intended as
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: A rich farmer of Beaumont-sur-Oise, named Leger, leased and cultivated
a farm, the fields of which projected into and greatly injured the
magnificent estate of the Comte de Serizy, called Presles. This farm
belonged to a burgher of Beaumont-sur-Oise, named Margueron. The lease
made to Leger in 1799, at a time when the great advance of agriculture
was not foreseen, was about to expire, and the owner of the farm
refused all offers from Leger to renew the lease. For some time past,
Monsieur de Serizy, wishing to rid himself of the annoyances and petty
disputes caused by the inclosure of these fields within his land, had
desired to buy the farm, having heard that Monsieur Margueron's chief
ambition was to have his only son, then a mere tax-gatherer, made
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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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: man for the rest of his life."
Diard led the marquis along a lonely street where he remembered to
have seen a house, the door of which was at the end of an avenue of
trees with high and gloomy walls on either side of it. When they
reached this spot he coolly invited the marquis to precede him; but as
if the latter understood him he preferred to keep at his side. Then,
no sooner were they fairly in the avenue, then Diard, with the agility
of a tiger, tripped up the marquis with a kick behind the knees, and
putting a foot on his neck stabbed him again and again to the heart
till the blade of the knife broke in it. Then he searched Montefiore's
pockets, took his wallet, money, everything. But though he had taken
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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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: better thing than a tardy repentance? was it not, in truth, the only
spotless prayer which she could lift to God?
So, when this daughter, when her Marie-Juana-Pepita (she would fain
have given her all the saints in the calendar as guardians), when this
dear little creature was granted to her, she became possessed of so
high an idea of the dignity of motherhood that she entreated vice to
grant her a respite. She made herself virtuous and lived in solitude.
No more fetes, no more orgies, no more love. All joys, all fortunes
were centred now in the cradle of her child. The tones of that infant
voice made an oasis for her soul in the burning sands of her
existence. That sentiment could not be measured or estimated by any
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