| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: and most elemental of all the brutal facts of animal
life. That it is resistless in a woman of your culture
and refinement makes it all the more pathetic----"
The girl rose with a gesture of impatience.
"It's no use, Jane dear; we speak a different
language. I don't in the least know what you're
talking about, and what's more, I'm glad I don't. I've
a vague idea that your drift is indecent. But we're
different. I realize that. I don't sit in judgment on
you. You're wasting your breath on me. I'm going into
this marriage with my eyes wide open. It's the
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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 Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: --whereas in this case the person concerned is a man whose integrity
has never been doubted, and who has just been openly honored by the
suffrages of his fellow citizens."
The discussion was prolonged for some time, the ministerial orators,
of course, taking the other side, until an unfortunate event occurred.
The senior deputy, acting as president (for the Chamber was not yet
constituted), was a worn-out old man, very absent-minded, and wholly
unaccustomed to the functions which his age devolved upon him. He had
duly received Monsieur de Sallenauve's letter requesting leave of
absence; and had he recollected to communicate it, as in duty bound,
to the Chamber at the proper time, the discussion would probably have
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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 Commission in Lunacy by Honore de Balzac: Souriciere, the mouse-trap--the House of Detention where the accused
are kept under the orders of the Examining Judge. He knew how to be an
inflexible judge and a charitable man. And no one extracted a
confession so easily as he without having recourse to judicial
trickery. He had, too, all the acumen of an observer. This man,
apparently so foolishly good-natured, simple, and absent-minded, could
guess all the cunning of a prison wag, unmask the astutest street
huzzy, and subdue a scoundrel. Unusual circumstances had sharpened his
perspicacity; but to relate these we must intrude on his domestic
history, for in him the judge was the social side of the man; another
man, greater and less known, existed within.
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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 Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: Ita proelium restitutum est, atque omnes hostes terga verterunt nec
prius fugere destiterunt quam ad flumen Rhenum milia passuum ex eo loco
circiter L pervenerunt. Ibi perpauci aut viribus confisi tranare
contenderunt aut lintribus inventis sibi salutem reppererunt. In his fuit
Ariovistus, qui naviculam deligatam ad ripam nactus ea profugit; reliquos
omnes consecuti equites nostri interfecerunt. Duae fuerunt Ariovisti
uxores, una Sueba natione, quam domo secum eduxerat, altera Norica, regis
Voccionis soror, quam in Gallia duxerat a fratre missam: utraque in ea
fuga periit; duae filiae: harum altera occisa, altera capta est. C.
Valerius Procillus, cum a custodibus in fuga trinis catenis vinctus
traheretur, in ipsum Caesarem hostes equitatu insequentem incidit. Quae
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