| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: rubbish, about as big as the sealing-wax heads which thrifty women
stick on the head of a large needle when the eye is broken.
"If I am examined first, we are saved; if it is the boy, all is lost,"
said he to himself while he waited.
His plight was so sore that the strong man's face was wet with white
sweat. Indeed, this wonderful man saw as clearly in his sphere of
crime as Moliere did in his sphere of dramatic poetry, or Cuvier in
that of extinct organisms. Genius of whatever kind is intuition. Below
this highest manifestation other remarkable achievements may be due to
talent. This is what divides men of the first rank from those of the
second.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: arrive at the Portuguese territories, we would levy an army, return
back to Abyssinia, and under pretence of establishing the Catholic
religion revenge all the injuries we had suffered. While they were
thus deliberating upon our fate, we were imploring the succour of
the Almighty with fervent and humble supplications, entreating him
in the midst of our sighs and tears that he would not suffer his own
cause to miscarry, and that, however it might please him to dispose
of our lives--which, we prayed, he would assist us to lay down with
patience and resignation worthy of the faith for which we were
persecuted--he would not permit our enemies to triumph over the
truth.
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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 United States Constitution: Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty
and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States
shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a
State and Citizens of another State;--between Citizens of different States;
--between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of
different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof,
and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.
In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls,
and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have
original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the
supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact,
The United States Constitution |
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 Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: indeed, Socrates, I never supposed that our arguments should be of a kind
which would never convince any one of those here present or be of advantage
to them. For what man of sense could ever be persuaded that the wisest and
the richest are the same? The truth is that we are discussing the subject
of riches, and my notion is that we should argue respecting the honest and
dishonest means of acquiring them, and, generally, whether they are a good
thing or a bad.
Very good, I said, and I am obliged to you for the hint: in future we will
be more careful. But why do not you yourself, as you introduced the
argument, and do not think that the former discussion touched the point at
issue, tell us whether you consider riches to be a good or an evil?
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