| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: Madame de Fougeres adores her husband, to whom she has presented two
children. This painter, a good father and a good husband, is unable to
eradicate from his heart a fatal thought, namely, that artists laugh
at his work; that his name is a term of contempt in the studios; and
that the feuilletons take no notice of his pictures. But he still
works on; he aims for the Academy, where, undoubtedly, he will enter.
And--oh! vengeance which dilates his heart!--he buys the pictures of
celebrated artists who are pinched for means, and he substitutes these
true works of arts that are not his own for the wretched daubs in the
collection at Ville d'Avray.
There are many mediocrities more aggressive and more mischievous than
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Georgics by Virgil: Rubs 'gainst a tree his flanks, and to and fro
Hardens each wallowing shoulder to the wound.
What of the youth, when love's relentless might
Stirs the fierce fire within his veins? Behold!
In blindest midnight how he swims the gulf
Convulsed with bursting storm-clouds! Over him
Heaven's huge gate thunders; the rock-shattered main
Utters a warning cry; nor parents' tears
Can backward call him, nor the maid he loves,
Too soon to die on his untimely pyre.
What of the spotted ounce to Bacchus dear,
Georgics |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Oakdale Affair by Edgar Rice Burroughs: tion."
"Cheese it," The General advised his companion; and
the two removed themselves to the opposite side of the
apartment, where they whispered, grumblingly, to one
another.
The girl, the boy, and Bridge waited as patiently as
they could for the coming of the dawn, talking of the
events of the night and planning against the future.
Bridge advised the girl to return at once to her father;
but this she resolutely refused to do, admitting with ut-
most candor that she lacked the courage to face her
The Oakdale Affair |
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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: him to see that they are not going right? Can truth and fact harm
any human being? I shall not believe so, as long as I have a
Bible wherein to believe. For my part, I should like to make
every man, woman, and child whom I meet discontented with
themselves, even as I am discontented with myself. I should like
to awaken in them, about their physical, their intellectual, their
moral condition, that divine discontent which is the parent, first
of upward aspiration and then of self-control, thought, effort to
fulfil that aspiration even in part. For to be discontented with
the divine discontent, and to be ashamed with the noble shame, is
the very germ and first upgrowth of all virtue. Men begin at
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