| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: to take you into partnership.--'Guillaume and Lebas;' will not that
make a good business name? We might add, 'and Co.' to round off the
firm's signature."
Tears rose to the eyes of Joseph Lebas, who tried to hide them.
"Oh, Monsieur Guillaume, how have I deserved such kindness? I only do
my duty. It was so much already that you should take an interest in a
poor orph----"
He was brushing the cuff of his left sleeve with his right hand, and
dared not look at the old man, who smiled as he thought that this
modest young fellow no doubt needed, as he had needed once on a time,
some encouragement to complete his explanation.
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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 Economist by Xenophon: Crit. Most emphatically so.
Soc. In fact, you need but use your eyes to see how many private
persons, not to say crowned heads, do owe the increase of their
estates to war.
Crit. Well, Socrates, I do not think, so far, the argument could be
improved on;[16] but now comes a puzzle. What of people who have got
the knowledge and the capital[17] required to enhance their fortunes,
if only they will put their shoulders to the wheel; and yet, if we are
to believe our senses, that is just the one thing they will not do,
and so their knowledge and accomplishments are of no profit to them?
Surely in their case also there is but one conclusion to be drawn,
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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 Art of War by Sun Tzu: required pitch and that they were now ready for fighting. By
this time the Ch`u army, after repeating their challenge again
and again, had marched away eastwards in disgust. The Ch`in
general immediately broke up his camp and followed them, and in
the battle that ensued they were routed with great slaughter.
Shortly afterwards, the whole of Ch`u was conquered by Ch`in, and
the king Fu-ch`u led into captivity.]
Keep your army continually on the move,
[In order that the enemy may never know exactly where you
are. It has struck me, however, that the true reading might be
"link your army together."]
The Art of War |
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 The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: In the middle distance, on gradually rising ground,
stretched a wide belt of dense, artificial foliage,
peeping through which tiled turrets and ornamented
chimneys marked the polite residences of those who,
though they neither stoked the furnace fires to the west,
nor sawed the lumber on the east, lived in purple and fine
linen from the profits of this toil. Nearer at hand,
pastures with grazing cows on the one side of the road,
and the nigh, weather-stained board fence of the race-course
on the other, completed the jumble of primitive rusticity
and urban complications characterizing the whole picture.
The Damnation of Theron Ware |
