| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: generation is for the sake of essence. Under relatives I class all things
done with a view to generation; and essence is of the class of good. But
if essence is of the class of good, generation must be of some other class;
and our friends, who affirm that pleasure is a generation, would laugh at
the notion that pleasure is a good; and at that other notion, that pleasure
is produced by generation, which is only the alternative of destruction.
Who would prefer such an alternation to the equable life of pure thought?
Here is one absurdity, and not the only one, to which the friends of
pleasure are reduced. For is there not also an absurdity in affirming that
good is of the soul only; or in declaring that the best of men, if he be in
pain, is bad?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: French abbe of his day, M. de Vilmorin was not interested in Woman.
Poor Philippe was in several ways exceptional. Opposite the Breton
arme - the inn and posting-house at the entrance of the village of
Gavrillac - M. de Vilmorin interrupted his companion just as he was
soaring to the dizziest heights of caustic invective, and
Andre-Louis, restored thereby to actualities, observed the carriage
of M. de La Tour d'Azyr standing before the door of the hostelry.
"I don't believe you've been listening to me," said he.
"Had you been less interested in what you were saying, you might
have observed it sooner and spared your breath. The fact is, you
disappoint me, Andre. You seem to have forgotten what we went for.
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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 Kenilworth by Walter Scott: ever concluding with "they would be nothing to the princely
pleasures of Kenilworth."
"And when shall we reach Kenilworth? said the Countess, with an
agitation which she in vain attempted to conceal.
"We that have horses may, with late riding, get to Warwick to-
night, and Kenilworth may be distant some four or five miles.
But then we must wait till the foot-people come up; although it
is like my good Lord of Leicester will have horses or light
carriages to meet them, and bring them up without being travel-
toiled, which last is no good preparation, as you may suppose,
for dancing before your betters. And yet, Lord help me, I have
Kenilworth |
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 Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: boulevard des Italiens, where they found themselves surrounded by the
elegances then in fashion. A young man about twenty-eight years of age
advanced to meet them with a smiling face, for he saw Leon de Lora
first. Vauvinet held out his hand with apparent friendliness to
Bixiou, and bowed coldly to Gazonal as he motioned them to enter his
office, where bourgeois taste was visible beneath the artistic
appearance of the furniture, and in spite of the statuettes and the
thousand other little trifles applied to our little apartments by
modern art, which has made itself as small as its patrons.
Vauvinet was dressed, like other young men of our day who go into
business, with extreme elegance, which many of them regard as a
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