| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: royal munificence, the wine and water for the holy sacrifice of the
mass stood ready in two glasses such as could scarcely be found in the
meanest tavern. For want of a missal, the priest had laid his breviary
on the altar, and a common earthenware plate was set for the washing
of hands that were pure and undefiled with blood. It was all so
infinitely great, yet so little, poverty-stricken yet noble, a
mingling of sacred and profane.
The stranger came forward reverently to kneel between the two nuns.
But the priest had tied crape round the chalice of the crucifix,
having no other way of marking the mass as a funeral service; it was
as if God himself had been in mourning. The man suddenly noticed this,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: are:--Mr. John Purves, Fellow of Balliol College, with whom I have revised
about half of the entire Translation; the Rev. Professor Campbell, of St.
Andrews, who has helped me in the revision of several parts of the work,
especially of the Theaetetus, Sophist, and Politicus; Mr. Robinson Ellis,
Fellow of Trinity College, and Mr. Alfred Robinson, Fellow of New College,
who read with me the Cratylus and the Gorgias; Mr. Paravicini, Student of
Christ Church, who assisted me in the Symposium; Mr. Raper, Fellow of
Queen's College, Mr. Monro, Fellow of Oriel College, and Mr. Shadwell,
Student of Christ Church, who gave me similar assistance in the Laws. Dr.
Greenhill, of Hastings, has also kindly sent me remarks on the
physiological part of the Timaeus, which I have inserted as corrections
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: to powerful personages."
Bixiou. "You know them?"
Dutocq. "Yes."
Bixiou. "Well, then I want to speak with them."
Dutocq [dryly]. "You can make the caricature or not, and you can be
under-head-clerk or not,--as you please."
Bixiou. "At any rate, let me see that thousand francs."
Dutocq. "You shall have them when you bring the drawing."
Bixiou. "Forward, march! that lampoon shall go from end to end of the
bureaus to-morrow morning. Let us go and torment the Rabourdins."
[Then speaking to Saillard, Godard, and Baudoyer, who were talking
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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 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: gentle, sweet natures, born to weakness, and mostly dying before
their time, - one cannot help thinking that the human race dies out
singing, like the swan in the old story. The French poet, Gilbert,
who died at the Hotel Dieu, at the age of twenty-nine, - (killed by
a key in his throat, which he had swallowed when delirious in
consequence of a fall,) - this poor fellow was a very good example
of the poet by excess of sensibility. I found, the other day, that
some of my literary friends had never heard of him, though I
suppose few educated Frenchmen do not know the lines which he
wrote, a week before his death, upon a mean bed in the great
hospital of Paris.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |
