| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: the other members to be servants, considering that it partook of every sort
of motion. In order then that it might not tumble about among the high and
deep places of the earth, but might be able to get over the one and out of
the other, they provided the body to be its vehicle and means of
locomotion; which consequently had length and was furnished with four limbs
extended and flexible; these God contrived to be instruments of locomotion
with which it might take hold and find support, and so be able to pass
through all places, carrying on high the dwelling-place of the most sacred
and divine part of us. Such was the origin of legs and hands, which for
this reason were attached to every man; and the gods, deeming the front
part of man to be more honourable and more fit to command than the hinder
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: Laches?
LACHES: Certainly, Socrates.
SOCRATES: And all these are courageous, but some have courage in
pleasures, and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some
are cowards under the same conditions, as I should imagine.
LACHES: Very true.
SOCRATES: Now I was asking about courage and cowardice in general. And I
will begin with courage, and once more ask, What is that common quality,
which is the same in all these cases, and which is called courage? Do you
now understand what I mean?
LACHES: Not over well.
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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 Youth by Joseph Conrad: went to sleep at last. I had faced the silence of the
East. I had heard some of its languages. But when I
opened my eyes again the silence was as complete as
though it had never been broken. I was lying in a
flood of light, and the sky had never looked so far, so
high, before. I opened my eyes and lay without moving.
"And then I saw the men of the East--they were
looking at me. The whole length of the jetty was
full of people. I saw brown, bronze, yellow faces,
the black eyes, the glitter, the color of an Eastern
crowd. And all these beings stared without a mur-
Youth |
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 Purse by Honore de Balzac: her, renounced the world, and made a glory of her shame. She gave
herself up entirely to her motherly love, seeking in it all her
joys in exchange for the social pleasures to which she bid
farewell. She lived by work, saving up a treasure for her son.
And, in after years, a day, an hour repaid her amply for the long
and weary sacrifices of her indigence.
At the last exhibition her son had received the Cross of the
Legion of Honor. The newspapers, unanimous in hailing an unknown
genius, still rang with sincere praises. Artists themselves
acknowledged Schinner as a master, and dealers covered his
canvases with gold pieces. At five-and-twenty Hippolyte Schinner,
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