| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: you and I had never parted, you would have been that siren's lover;
you might have married her when she was a widow, and you would have
had her forty thousand francs a year----"
"Really?"
"Certainly," replied Lisbeth. "Now, take care of yourself; I warned
you of the danger; do not singe your wings in the candle!--Come, give
me your arm, dinner is served."
No language could be so thoroughly demoralizing as this; for if you
show a Pole a precipice, he is bound to leap it. As a nation they have
the very spirit of cavalry; they fancy they can ride down every
obstacle and come out victorious. The spur applied by Lisbeth to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: And so it is that, just as man differs from man in some excellence,
according as he cultivates or neglects to cultivate it, this city of
Sparta, with good reason, outshines all other states in virtue; since
she, and she alone, as made the attainment of a high standard of noble
living a public duty.
[4] Is this an autobiographical touch?
And was this not a noble enactment, that whereas other states are
content to inflict punishment only in cases where a man does wrong
against his neighbour, Lycurgus imposed penalties no less severe on
him who openly neglected to make himself as good as possible? For
this, it seems, was his principle: in the one case, where a man is
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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 Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: "Good heavens! what is all that to me?"
"Hold your tongue, Cruchot! It's settled, all settled," cried Grandet,
taking his daughter's hand and striking it with his own. "Eugenie, you
won't go back on your word?--you are an honest girl, hein?"
"Oh! father!--"
He kissed her effusively, and pressed her in his arms till he almost
choked her.
"Go, my good child, you restore your father's life; but you only
return to him that which he gave you: we are quits. This is how
business should be done. Life is a business. I bless you! you are a
virtuous girl, and you love your father. Do just what you like in
Eugenie Grandet |
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 Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles: See that ye give effect to all my hest,
For my sake and the god's and for our land,
A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven.
For, let alone the god's express command,
It were a scandal ye should leave unpurged
The murder of a great man and your king,
Nor track it home. And now that I am lord,
Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife,
(And had he not been frustrate in the hope
Of issue, common children of one womb
Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me,
Oedipus Trilogy |
