| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ferragus by Honore de Balzac: he chooses in preference gentler events,--those where scenes of purity
succeed the tempests of passion; where woman is radiant with virtue
and beauty. To the honor of the THIRTEEN be it said that there are
such scenes in their history, which may have the honor of being some
day published as a foil of tales to listeners,--that race apart from
others, so curiously energetic, and so interesting in spite of its
crimes.
An author ought to be above converting his tale, when the tale is
true, into a species of surprise-game, and of taking his readers, as
certain novellists do, through many volumes and from cellar to cellar,
to show them the dry bones of a dead body, and tell them, by way of
Ferragus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: multis,' Socrates himself defines figure as 'the accompaniment of colour.'
But some one may object that he does not know the meaning of the word
'colour;' and if he is a candid friend, and not a mere disputant, Socrates
is willing to furnish him with a simpler and more philosophical definition,
into which no disputed word is allowed to intrude: 'Figure is the limit of
form.' Meno imperiously insists that he must still have a definition of
colour. Some raillery follows; and at length Socrates is induced to reply,
'that colour is the effluence of form, sensible, and in due proportion to
the sight.' This definition is exactly suited to the taste of Meno, who
welcomes the familiar language of Gorgias and Empedocles. Socrates is of
opinion that the more abstract or dialectical definition of figure is far
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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 King James Bible: SA2 23:13 And three of the thirty chief went down, and came to David in
the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam: and the troop of the
Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim.
SA2 23:14 And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the
Philistines was then in Bethlehem.
SA2 23:15 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink
of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!
SA2 23:16 And the three mighty men brake through the host of the
Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by
the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would
not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD.
King James Bible |
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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: the French would say, "etiolated" countenances of the girls who
were passing the greater part of the day in them; and painful,
also, to breathe an atmosphere of which habit had, alas! made them
unconscious, but which to one coming out of the open air was
altogether noxious, and shocking also; for it was fostering the
seeds of death, not only in the present but future generations.
Why should this be? Everyone will agree that good ventilation is
necessary in a hospital, because people cannot get well without
fresh air. Do they not see that by the same reasoning good
ventilation is necessary everywhere, because people cannot remain
well without fresh air? Let me entreat those who employ women in
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