| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: are what I describe, and in blissful unconsciousness that you are
destined to the lingering asphyxia of soul which is the lot of such
multitudes worthier than yourself. But it is only my surface-
thought which laughs. For that great procession of the UNLOVED,
who not only wear the crown of thorns, but must hide it under the
locks of brown or gray, - under the snowy cap, under the chilling
turban, - hide it even from themselves, - perhaps never know they
wear it, though it kills them, - there is no depth of tenderness in
my nature that Pity has not sounded. Somewhere, - somewhere, -
love is in store for them, - the universe must not be allowed to
fool them so cruelly. What infinite pathos in the small, half-
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
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: infrequently happens that he spends two or three weeks with him at
Hanwell, Middlesex Co., one of the best-managed lunatic asylums in
England,--Doctor Ellis being in charge of it.
When he arrived at Ville d'Avray, Lord Lewin saw at once that
Marie-Gaston had all the symptoms of incipient mania. Invisible to
other eyes, they were apparent to those of Lord Lewin. In speaking
to me of our poor friend, he used the word /chiffonait/,--meaning
that he picked up rubbish as he walked, bits of straw, scraps of
paper, rusty nails, and put them carefully into his pocket. That,
he informed me, is a marked symptom well known to those who study
the first stages of insanity. Enticing him to the subject of their
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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 This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald: itI'll sue the steamboat company, Beatrice said, and my uncle has
a quarter interestdid Beatrice go to heaven?... probably not He
represented Beatrice's immortality, also love-affairs of numerous
dead men who surely had never thought of him ... if it wasn't
appendicitis, influenza maybe. What? One Hundred and Twentieth
Street? That must have been One Hundred and Twelfth back there.
One O Two instead of One Two Seven. Rosalind not like Beatrice,
Eleanor like Beatrice, only wilder and brainier. Apartments along
here expensiveprobably hundred and fifty a monthmaybe two
hundred. Uncle had only paid hundred a month for whole great big
house in Minneapolis. Questionwere the stairs on the left or
This Side of Paradise |
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 King James Bible: PSA 75:2 When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly.
PSA 75:3 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I
bear up the pillars of it. Selah.
PSA 75:4 I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked,
Lift not up the horn:
PSA 75:5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
PSA 75:6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west,
nor from the south.
PSA 75:7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up
another.
PSA 75:8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is
King James Bible |
