| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: stand there is no impropriety in my asking for an interview of a few
moments with Mademoiselle Colleville."
In this the Provencal showed his usual shrewd ability; he saw that in
the mission of pacification thus given to him Celeste Colleville was
the key of the situation.
"I will send for her, and we will leave you alone together," said
Flavie.
"My dear Thuillier," said la Peyrade, "you must, without any violence,
let Mademoiselle Celeste know that her consent must be given without
further delay; make her think that this was the purpose for which you
have sent for her; then leave us; I will do the rest."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: fashion of those days) to take Yeo's deposition concerning last
night's affray. Moreover, when Shallow came, he refused to take
the depositions, because they ought to have been made before a
brother Shallow at Lydford; and in the wrangling which ensued, was
very near finding out what Amyas (fearing fresh loss of time and
worse evils beside) had commanded to be concealed, namely, the
presence of Jesuits in that Moorland Utopia. Then, in broadest
Devon--
"And do you call this Christian conduct, sir, to set a quiet man
like me upon they Gubbings, as if I was going to risk my precious
life--no, nor ever a constable to Okehampton neither? Let Lydfor'
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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 Essays of Francis Bacon by Francis Bacon: excellent beauty, that hath not some strangeness
in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether
Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more trifler;
whereof the one, would make a personage by geo-
metrical proportions; the other, by taking the best
parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent.
Such personages, I think, would please nobody,
but the painter that made them. Not but I think a
painter may make a better face than ever was; but
he must do it by a kind of felicity (as a musician
that maketh an excellent air in music), and not by
Essays of Francis Bacon |
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 Cratylus by Plato: only attended the single-drachma course, he is not competent to give an
opinion on such matters. When Cratylus denies that Hermogenes is a true
name, he supposes him to mean that he is not a true son of Hermes, because
he is never in luck. But he would like to have an open council and to hear
both sides.
Hermogenes is of opinion that there is no principle in names; they may be
changed, as we change the names of slaves, whenever we please, and the
altered name is as good as the original one.
You mean to say, for instance, rejoins Socrates, that if I agree to call a
man a horse, then a man will be rightly called a horse by me, and a man by
the rest of the world? But, surely, there is in words a true and a false,
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