| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: For myself I had got rid of Armour for the afternoon. I think my
irritation with him about his pony rose and delivered me from the
too insistent thought of him. With Dora it was otherwise; she had
dismissed him; but he had never left her for a moment the whole long
afternoon.
She flung a searching look at me. With a reckless turn of her head,
she said, 'Why didn't we take him with us?'
'Did we want him?' I asked.
'I think I always want him.'
'Ah!' said I, and would have pondered this statement at some length
in silence, but that she plainly did not wish me to do so.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: say your prayers." But it's always boiling before my lady is half through.
You see, madam, we know such a lot of people, and they've all got to be
prayed for--every one. My lady keeps a list of the names in a little red
book. Oh dear! whenever some one new has been to see us and my lady says
afterwards, "Ellen, give me my little red book," I feel quite wild, I do.
"There's another," I think, "keeping her out of her bed in all weathers."
And she won't have a cushion, you know, madam; she kneels on the hard
carpet. It fidgets me something dreadful to see her, knowing her as I do.
I've tried to cheat her; I've spread out the eiderdown. But the first time
I did it--oh, she gave me such a look--holy it was, madam. "Did our Lord
have an eiderdown, Ellen?" she said. But--I was younger at the time--I
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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 The Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: "The King of the South,
He burned his mouth," etc.
CHAPTER V
The illustrious Gaudissart returned to the Soleil d'Or, where he
naturally conversed with the landlord while waiting for dinner.
Mitouflet was an old soldier, guilelessly crafty, like the peasantry
of the Loire; he never laughed at a jest, but took it with the gravity
of a man accustomed to the roar of cannon and to make his own jokes
under arms.
"You have some very strong-minded people here," said Gaudissart,
leaning against the door-post and lighting his cigar at Mitouflet's
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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 Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: Art and Passion--intonation of voice, whether harsh or suave,
terrible, lascivious, horrifying or seductive by turns, thrilling the
heart, the nerves, or the brain at our will; the marvels of the touch,
the instrument of the mental transfusions of a myriad artists, whose
creative fingers are able, after passionate study, to reproduce the
forms of nature; or, again, the infinite gradations of the eye from
dull inertia to the emission of the most terrifying gleams.
"By this system God is bereft of none of His rights. Mind, as a form
of matter, has brought me a new conviction of His greatness."
After hearing him discourse thus, after receiving into my soul his
look like a ray of light, it was difficult not to be dazzled by his
Louis Lambert |
