| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Louis Lambert by Honore de Balzac: ideas, he craved to satisfy the thirst of his brain, to assimilate
every idea. Hence his reading; and from his reading, the reflections
that gave him the power of reducing things to their simplest
expression, and of absorbing them to study them in their essence.
Thus, the advantages of this splendid stage, acquired by other men
only after long study, were achieved by Lambert during his bodily
childhood: a happy childhood, colored by the studious joys of a born
poet.
The point which most thinkers reach at last was to him the starting-
point, whence his brain was to set out one day in search of new worlds
of knowledge. Though as yet he knew it not, he had made for himself
Louis Lambert |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: charged with higher commands than those of a mere earthly
potentate. Indeed, his dress of shaggy skins, his uncombed and
untrimmed hair and beard, his lean, wild, and contorted features,
and the almost insane fire which gleamed from under his bushy
eyebrows, made him approach nearly to our idea of some seer of
Scripture, who, charged with high mission to the sinful Kings of
Judah or Israel, descended from the rocks and caverns in which he
dwelt in abstracted solitude, to abash earthly tyrants in the
midst of their pride, by discharging on them the blighting
denunciations of Divine Majesty, even as the cloud discharges the
lightnings with which it is fraught on the pinnacles and towers
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: with his eyes resting pensively upon Chief Inspector Heat.
"No, that was not my thought," he began again. "There is no doubt
about you knowing your business - no doubt at all; and that's
precisely why I - " He stopped short, and changing his tone: "What
could you bring up against Michaelis of a definite nature? I mean
apart from the fact that the two men under suspicion - you're
certain there were two of them - came last from a railway station
within three miles of the village where Michaelis is living now."
"This by itself is enough for us to go upon, sir, with that sort of
man," said the Chief Inspector, with returning composure. The
slight approving movement of the Assistant Commissioner's head went
The Secret Agent |
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 Moby Dick by Herman Melville: "How old do you suppose Fedallah is, Stubb?"
"Do you see that mainmast there?" pointing to the ship; "well, that's
the figure one; now take all the hoops in the Pequod's hold, and
string along in a row with that mast, for oughts, do you see; well,
that wouldn't begin to be Fedallah's age. Nor all the coopers in
creation couldn't show hoops enough to make oughts enough."
"But see here, Stubb, I thought you a little boasted just now, that
you meant to give Fedallah a sea-toss, if you got a good chance.
Now, if he's so old as all those hoops of yours come to, and if he is
going to live for ever, what good will it do to pitch him
overboard--tell me that?
Moby Dick |
