| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: insulter votre epouse?
HERODE. Mais il n'a pas dit votre nom.
HERODIAS. Qu'est-ce que cela fait? Vous savez bien que c'est moi
qu'il cherche e insulter. Et je suis votre epouse, n'est-ce pas?
HERODE. Oui, chere et digne Herodias, vous etes mon epouse, et vous
avez commence par etre l'epouse de mon frere.
HERODIAS. C'est vous qui m'avez arrachee de ses bras.
HERODE. En effet, j'etais le plus fort . . . mais ne parlons pas de
cela. Je ne veux pas parler de cela. C'est e cause de cela que le
prophete a dit des mots d'epouvante. Peut-etre e cause de cela va-
t-il arriver un malheur. N'en parlons pas . . . Noble Herodias,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: now be left alone in the world. He looked at his brother for a moment,
and put his arms about him, took one more long look, brushed a tear
from his eyes, and went, turning again and again till the very last to
see his brother standing there in the gateway of the school.
A month later Louis-Gaston, now an apprentice on board a man-of-war,
left the harbor of Rochefort. Leaning over the bulwarks of the
corvette Iris, he watched the coast of France receding swiftly till it
became indistinguishable from the faint blue horizon line. In a little
while he felt that he was really alone, and lost in the wide ocean,
lost and alone in the world and in life.
"There is no need to cry, lad; there is a God for us all," said an old
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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 Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: cherish no hope save that of forsaken love, which looks forward to
Death's coming, and hastens his lagging footsteps. And this while life
was in its prime. Oh! to feel destined for happiness and to die--never
having given nor received it! A woman too! What pain was this! These
thoughts flashing across M. de Nueil's mind like lightning, left him
very humble in the presence of the greatest charm with which woman can
be invested. The triple aureole of beauty, nobleness, and misfortune
dazzled him; he stood in dreamy, almost open-mouthed admiration of the
Vicomtesse. But he found nothing to say to her.
Mme. de Beauseant, by no means displeased, no doubt, by his surprise,
held out her hand with a kindly but imperious gesture; then, summoning
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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 Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: effect on her of his joke. He saw now how he meant it as a joke.
SHE saw, however, still other things, though in an instant she
had hidden them. "You've got at no facts at all?"
He tried to muster them. "Well, he has a lovely home."
"Ah that, in Paris," she quickly returned, "proves nothing. That
is rather it DISproves nothing. They may very well, you see, the
people your mission is concerned with, have done it FOR him."
"Exactly. And it was on the scene of their doings then that
Waymarsh and I sat guzzling."
"Oh if you forbore to guzzle here on scenes of doings," she
replied, "you might easily die of starvation." With which she
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