| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: houses; they live either in tents, or in cottages made of straw and
clay; for they very rarely build with stone. Their villages or
towns consist of these huts; yet even of such villages they have but
few, because the grandees, the viceroys, and the Emperor himself are
always in the camp, that they may be prepared, upon the most sudden
summons, to go where the exigence of affairs demands their presence.
And this precaution is no more than necessary for a prince every
year engaged either in foreign wars or intestine commotions. These
towns have each a governor, whom they call gadare, over whom is the
educ, or lieutenant, and both accountable to an officer called the
afamacon, or mouth of the King; because he receives the revenues,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: opposite proposings, sense to understand, judgment to weigh,
discretion to choose, firmness to undertake, diligence to conduct,
perseverance to accomplish, and resolution to maintain.
For obedience to her husband, that is not to be tried till she has one:
for faith in her confessor, she has as much as the law prescribes:
for embroidery an Arachne: for music a Siren: and for pickling
and preserving, did not one of her jars of sugared apricots give
you your last surfeit at Arlingford Castle?"
"Call you that preserving?" said the little friar; "I call it destroying.
Call you it pickling? Truly it pickled me. My life was saved by miracle."
"By canary," said brother Michael. "Canary is the only life preserver,
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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 Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: fancy that they constitute the true reasons for and premises of his
conduct. Although Orleanists and Legitimists, each of these factions,
sought to make itself and the other believe that what kept the two apart
was the attachment of each to its respective royal House; nevertheless,
facts proved later that it rather was their divided interest that
forbade the union of the two royal Houses. As, in private life, the
distinction is made between what a man thinks of himself and says, and
that which he really is and does, so, all the more, must the phrases and
notions of parties in historic struggles be distinguished from the real
organism, and their real interests, their notions and their reality.
Orleanists and Legitimists found themselves in the republic beside each
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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 My Antonia by Willa Cather: Wick Cutter was different from any other rascal I have ever known,
but I have found Mrs. Cutters all over the world; sometimes founding
new religions, sometimes being forcibly fed--easily recognizable,
even when superficially tamed.
XII
AFTER ANTONIA WENT TO live with the Cutters, she seemed to care
about nothing but picnics and parties and having a good time.
When she was not going to a dance, she sewed until midnight.
Her new clothes were the subject of caustic comment.
Under Lena's direction she copied Mrs. Gardener's new party
dress and Mrs. Smith's street costume so ingeniously in cheap
My Antonia |
