| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: gaily.
Three or four days after this memorable day, on one of those fine
mornings in the month of November, which show the boulevards cleaned
by the sharp cold of an early frost, Mademoiselle de Fontaine, wrapped
in a new style of fur cape, of which she wished to set the fashion,
went out with two of her sisters-in-law, on whom she had been wont to
discharge her most cutting remarks. The three women were tempted to
the drive, less by their desire to try a very elegant carriage, and
wear gowns which were to set the fashion for the winter, than by their
wish to see a cape which a friend had observed in a handsome lace and
linen shop at the corner of the Rue de la Paix. As soon as they were
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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 Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: atheism by this fact, though it is no evidence against God. This
man died, it is said, in final impenitence, as do, unfortunately,
many noble geniuses, whom God may forgive.
The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many
meannesses, to use the expression employed by his enemies, who
were anxious to diminish his glory, but which it would be more
proper to call apparent contradictions. Envious people and fools,
having no knowledge of the determinations by which superior
spirits are moved, seize at once on superficial inconsistencies,
to formulate an accusation and so to pass sentence on them. If,
subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are crowned with
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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 Dreams by Olive Schreiner: Behind it runs the old Roman road. If you climb it and come and sit there
alone on a hot sunny day you may almost hear at last the clink of the Roman
soldiers upon the pavement, and the sound of that older time, as you sit
there in the sun, when Hannibal and his men broke through the brushwood,
and no road was.
Now it is very quiet. Sometimes a peasant girl comes riding by between her
panniers, and you hear the mule's feet beat upon the bricks of the
pavement; sometimes an old woman goes past with a bundle of weeds upon her
head, or a brigand-looking man hurries by with a bundle of sticks in his
hand; but for the rest the Chapel lies here alone upon the promontory,
between the two bays and hears the sea break at its feet.
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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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: could not help pleading that the explorations might be deferred until
after a visit had been paid to Gourbi Island.
"Depend upon it, captain, you are mistaken," replied the lieutenant;"
the right thing to do is to use the _Dobryna_ while she is available."
"Available! What do you mean?" asked the count, somewhat taken by surprise.
"I mean," said Procope, "that the farther this Gallia of ours
recedes from the sun, the lower the temperature will fall.
It is likely enough, I think, that before long the sea
will be frozen over, and navigation will be impossible.
Already you have learned something of the difficulties of
traversing a field of ice, and I am sure, therefore, you will
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