| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: other heads of houses, that in short the university having no other
way to exert themselves, and show their resentment, they made a
bye-law or order among themselves, that for the future they would
not trade with him; and that none of the colleges, halls, etc.,
would take any more beer of him; and what followed? The man indeed
braved it out a while, but when he found he could not obtain a
revocation of the order, he was fain to leave off his brewhouse,
and if I remember right, quitted the town.
Thus I say, interest gives them authority; and there are abundance
of reasons why the town should not disoblige the university, as
there are some also on the other hand, why the university should
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: opinions, which were all trotted out again when the play was
produced privately for the second time in England by the Literary
Theatre Society in 1906. In the Speaker of July 14th, 1906,
however, some of the iterated misrepresentations of fact were
corrected. No attempt was made to controvert the opinion of an
ignorant critic: his veracity only was impugned. The powers of
vaticination possessed by such judges of drama can be fairly tested
in the career of Salome on the European stage, apart from the opera.
In an introduction to the English translation published by Mr. John
Lane it is pointed out that Wilde's confusion of Herod Antipas
(Matt. xiv. 1) with Herod the Great (Matt. ii. 1) and Herod Agrippa
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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 Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: everlasting felicity in the glorious distribution of his rewards.
Ay, and in this world he exhorteth us to let our `light so shine
before men, that they may see,' he saith, `your good works, and
glorify your Father which is in heaven.'
"For the law of Moses, formerly given to the Israelites, saith,
'Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt
not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness:' but Christ saith
'Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in
danger of the judgement; and whosoever shall say, Thou fool,
shall be in danger of hell fire:' and, `if thou bring thy gift to
the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught
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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 Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: smiling ironically to M. de Marsay as he passed on horseback and
caught sight of Macumer sitting opposite to us beside my father.
My bewitching Felipe has had his cards reprinted as follows:
HENAREZ
(Baron de Macumer, formerly Duc de Soria.)
Every morning he brings me with his own hands a splendid bouquet,
hidden in which I never fail to find a letter, containing a Spanish
sonnet in my honor, which he has composed during the night.
Not to make this letter inordinately large, I send you as specimens
only the first and last of these sonnets, which I have translated for
your benefit, word for word, and line for line:--
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