| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: sometimes I was on the boards in the chorus, sometimes under them with
the carpenters. Thus I learned every kind of musical effect, studying
the tones of instruments and of the human voice, wherein they differed
and how they harmonized, listening to the score and applying the rules
taught me by my father.
"It was hungry work, in a land where the sun always shines, where art
is all pervading, but where there is no pay for the artist, since Rome
is but nominally the Sovereign of the Christian world. Sometimes made
welcome, sometimes scouted for my poverty, I never lost courage. I
heard a voice within me promising me fame.
"Music seemed to me in its infancy, and I think so still. All that is
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: Mrs. Gregory brought in a fable. "You'll find us all 'country mice'
here."
This time I was happy. "At least, then, there'll be no cat!" And this
caused us all to make little bows.
But the word "cat" fell into our talk as does a drop of some acid into a
chemical solution, instantly changing the whole to an unexpected new
color. The unexpected new color was, in this instance, merely what had
been latently lurking in the fluid of our consciousness all through and
now it suddenly came out.
Mrs. Gregory stared over the parapet at the harbor. "I wonder if anybody
has visited that steam yacht?"
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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 What is Man? by Mark Twain: The noble treatise on the ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, which at a
later period was expanded into the DE AUGMENTIS, appeared in 1605.
The WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS, a work which, if it had
proceeded from any other writer, would have been considered as a
masterpiece of wit and learning, was printed in 1609.
In the mean time the NOVUM ORGANUM was slowly proceeding.
Several distinguished men of learning had been permitted to see
portions of that extraordinary book, and they spoke with the
greatest admiration of his genius.
Even Sir Thomas Bodley, after perusing the COGITATA ET VISA,
one of the most precious of those scattered leaves out of which
What is Man? |
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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: proved by vouchers, produced and re-produced on balance-sheets, and
receipted for when paid; orders and receipts are registered on the
rolls, and checked and verified by an army of men in spectacles. If
there is the slightest mistake in the form of these precious
documents, the clerk is terrified, for he lives on such minutiae. Some
nations would be satisfied to get as far as this; but Napoleon went
further. That great organizer appointed supreme magistrates of a court
which is absolutely unique in the world. These officials pass their
days in verifying money-orders, documents, roles, registers, lists,
permits, custom-house receipts, payments, taxes received, taxes spent,
etc.; all of which the clerks write or copy. These stern judges push
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