| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: flash from the soul. Hippolyte wanted to feel some tie linking
him with his two neighbors, to conquer a right to mingle in their
life. His offer, appealing as it did to the liveliest affections
of the heart, was the only one he could possibly make; it
gratified his pride as an artist, and could not hurt the feelings
of the ladies. Madame Leseigneur accepted, without eagerness or
reluctance, but with the self-possession of a noble soul, fully
aware of the character of bonds formed by such an obligation,
while, at the same time, they are its highest glory as a proof of
esteem.
"I fancy," said the painter, "that the uniform is that of a naval
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adventure by Jack London: gone back to Tudor, and hidden with him for a week, living on wild
fruits and the few pigeons and cockatoos he had been able to shoot
with bow and arrow. Then he had journeyed down to Berande to bring
the news. Tudor, he said, was very sick, lying unconscious for
days at a time, and, when in his right mind, too weak to help
himself.
"What name you no kill 'm that big fella marster?" Joan demanded.
"He have 'm good fella musket, plenty calico, plenty tobacco,
plenty knife-fee, and two fella pickaninny musket shoot quick,
bang-bang-bang--just like that."
The black smiled cunningly.
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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 Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: The king of Boheme, father, whom I slew;
Whose thousands had entrenched me round about,
And lay as thick upon my battered crest,
As on an Anvil, with their ponderous glaves:
Yet marble courage still did underprop
And when my weary arms, with often blows,
Like the continual laboring Wood-man's Axe
That is enjoined to fell a load of Oaks,
Began to faulter, straight I would record
My gifts you gave me, and my zealous vow,
And then new courage made me fresh again,
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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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: die.
The culmination of all this confusion we see in Proclus. The
unfortunate Hypatia, who is the most important personage between him and
Iamblichus, has left no writings to our times; we can only judge of her
doctrine by that of her instructors and her pupils. Proclus was taught
by the men who had heard her lecture; and the golden chain of the
Platonic succession descended from her to him. His throne, however, was
at Athens, not at Alexandria. After the murder of the maiden
philosopher, Neoplatonism prudently retired to Greece. But Proclus is
so essentially the child of the Alexandrian school that we cannot pass
him over. Indeed, according to M. Cousin, as I am credibly informed, he
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