| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: grateful smile.
"You came down just now, mother," replied the young girl, with a
blush.
"Would you like us to accompany you all the way downstairs?"
asked the mother. "The stairs are dark."
"No, thank you, indeed, madame; I am much better."
"Hold tightly by the rail."
The two women remained on the landing to light the young man,
listening to the sound of his steps.
In order to set forth clearly all the exciting and unexpected
interest this scene might have for the young painter, it must be
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: my theory from some one parent-species, and of which the several new
species have become modified through natural selection in accordance with
their diverse habits. Then, from the many slight successive steps of
variation having supervened at a rather late age, and having been inherited
at a corresponding age, the young of the new species of our supposed genus
will manifestly tend to resemble each other much more closely than do the
adults, just as we have seen in the case of pigeons. We may extend this
view to whole families or even classes. The fore-limbs, for instance,
which served as legs in the parent-species, may become, by a long course of
modification, adapted in one descendant to act as hands, in another as
paddles, in another as wings; and on the above two principles--namely of
On the Origin of Species |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: body gently back in his chair, raised his head till he could just see the
cornice of the room, and then directing the buccinatory muscles along his
cheeks, and the orbicular muscles around his lips to do their duty--he
whistled Lillabullero.
Chapter 1.LI.
Whilst my uncle Toby was whistling Lillabullero to my father,--Dr. Slop was
stamping, and cursing and damning at Obadiah at a most dreadful rate,--it
would have done your heart good, and cured you, Sir, for ever of the vile
sin of swearing, to have heard him, I am determined therefore to relate the
whole affair to you.
When Dr. Slop's maid delivered the green baize bag with her master's
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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 Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: tenements. There, as he afterwards expressed it, he "mopped up
the floor" with one after another of the ringleaders, beginning
with young Billy McGaw, Dan's eldest son and Cully's senior.
Tom was dumfounded at the attack on Patsy. This was a blow upon
which she had not counted. To strike her Patsy, her cripple, her
baby! The cowardice of it incensed her, She knew instantly that
her affairs must have been common talk about the tenements to have
produced so great an effect upon the children. She felt sure that
their fathers and mothers had encouraged them in it.
In emergencies like this it was never to the old father that she
turned. He was too feeble, too much a thing of the past. While
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