| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: love, of all things--would be a folly. She would tell him--must
in all honesty tell him that she did not love him, and all their
delicious camaraderie would end in a "scene." Condy, above
everything, wished to look back on those two months, after she had
gone, without being able to remember therein one single note that
jarred. If the memory of her was all that he was to have, he
resolved that at least that memory should be perfect.
And the love of her had made a man of him--he could not forget
that; had given to him just the strength that made it possible for
him to keep that resolute, grim silence now. In those two months
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: MENO: Yes, in that case.
SOCRATES: Well, and do those who, as you say, desire evils, and think that
evils are hurtful to the possessor of them, know that they will be hurt by
them?
MENO: They must know it.
SOCRATES: And must they not suppose that those who are hurt are miserable
in proportion to the hurt which is inflicted upon them?
MENO: How can it be otherwise?
SOCRATES: But are not the miserable ill-fated?
MENO: Yes, indeed.
SOCRATES: And does any one desire to be miserable and ill-fated?
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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 The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: Saint-Germain.
"Beaudenord is the first pigeon that I will bring on the scene. And,
in the first place, his name was Godefroid de Beaudenord; neither
Finot, nor Blondet, nor Couture, nor I am likely to undervalue such an
advantage as that! After a ball, when a score of pretty women stand
behooded waiting for their carriages, with their husbands and adorers
at their sides, Beaudenord could hear his people called without a pang
of mortification. In the second place, he rejoiced in the full
complement of limbs; he was whole and sound, had no mote in his eyes,
no false hair, no artificial calves; he was neither knock-kneed nor
bandy-legged, his dorsal column was straight, his waist slender, his
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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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James: that presently gave their first sign.
It was plump, one afternoon, in the middle of my very hour:
the children were tucked away, and I had come out for my stroll.
One of the thoughts that, as I don't in the least shrink now
from noting, used to be with me in these wanderings was that it
would be as charming as a charming story suddenly to meet someone.
Someone would appear there at the turn of a path and would stand
before me and smile and approve. I didn't ask more than that--
I only asked that he should KNOW; and the only way to be sure he knew
would be to see it, and the kind light of it, in his handsome face.
That was exactly present to me--by which I mean the face was--
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