| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: a packing-case as big as a house. I've muddled the whole business
up to that extent, Finsbury, that if it were to get out it's my
belief we should get lynched.'
It was useless to be serious with Mr Wickham. 'Take care,' said
Michael. 'I am getting tired of your perpetual scrapes; my
reputation is beginning to suffer.'
'Your reputation will be all gone before you finish with me,'
replied his companion with a grin. 'Clap it in the bill, my boy.
"For total loss of reputation, six and eightpence." But,'
continued Mr Wickham with more seriousness, 'could I be bowled
out of the Commission for this little jest? I know it's small,
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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 Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: once if it benefits the doer in the slightest degree," said Genestas.
"If he tells the story of it, the toll brought in to his vanity is a
sufficient substitute for gratitude. But if every doer of kindly
actions always held his tongue about them, those who reaped the
benefits would hardly say very much either. Now the people, according
to your system, stand in need of examples, and how are they to hear of
them amid this general reticence? Again, there is this poor pontooner
of ours, who saved the whole French army, and who was never able to
tell his tale to any purpose; suppose that he had lost the use of his
limbs, would the consciousness of what he had done have found him in
bread? Answer me that, philosopher!"
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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 Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: fall from the leaden sky of that winter without sun-
shine. All the faces were sad. He could talk to
no one, and had no hope of ever understanding
anybody. It was as if these had been the faces of
people from the other world--dead people--he
used to tell me years afterwards. Upon my word,
I wonder he did not go mad. He didn't know
where he was. Somewhere very far from his moun-
tains--somewhere over the water. Was this Amer-
ica, he wondered?
"If it hadn't been for the steel cross at Miss
Amy Foster |
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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: command society at that epoch, because it was an epoch when all men
were endeavoring to rise. Social classifications ready-made are
perhaps a great boon even for the people. Napoleon has confided to us
the pains he took to inspire respect in his court, where most of the
courtiers had been his equals. But Napoleon was Corsican, and Diard
Provencal. Given equal genius, an islander will always be more compact
and rounded than the man of terra firma in the same latitude; the arm
of the sea which separates Corsica from Provence is, in spite of human
science, an ocean which has made two nations.
Diard's mongrel position, which he himself made still more
questionable, brought him great troubles. Perhaps there is useful
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