| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: to obey either laws or good instruction;[21] nay, how should they, who
never toil, discover what a good man ought to be?--in other words,
wisdom and justice are alike beyond their power. Subject to
indiscipline, they have many a fault to find with him who is well
educated.
[20] Lit. "the sorriest of mankind these by nature."
[21] Or, "virtuous argument"; {logois agathois}, lit. "good words."
Through the instrumentality of such as these nothing can go well;
whereas every blessing which mankind enjoys has been discovered by the
efforts of the nobler sort. Nobler, I say, are those who choose to
toil.[22]
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac: wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once more attended mass in front of
the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, sure enough! The master-
surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper by chance. The
mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the phenomenon
complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to the
sacristan, who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether
the gentleman were a constant worshiper.
"For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M.
Desplein has come four times a year to attend this mass. He
founded it."
"A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is
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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 Secret Places of the Heart by H. G. Wells: counted for anything at all. Suppose she did turn him down.
In itself that wasn't a thing to break her father's heart.
What did matter was not whether she threw Lake over but what
she threw him over for. If it was because he wasn't man
enough, well and good. But if it was for some other lover,
some good-looking, worthless impostor, some European title or
suchlike folly--!
At the thought of a lover for V.V. a sudden flood of anger
poured across the old man's mind, behind the still mask of
his face. It infuriated him even to think of V.V., his little
V.V., his own girl, entertaining a lover, being possibly--
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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 Confidence by Henry James: she was off her guard with a vengeance. Happily he was on his own!
He flattered himself that he remained so on occasions that were even more
insidiously relaxing--when, in the evening, she strolled away with him
to parts of the grounds of the Conversation-house, where the music sank
to sweeter softness and the murmur of the tree-tops of the Black Forest,
stirred by the warm night-air, became almost audible; or when,
in the long afternoons, they wandered in the woods apart from the others--
from Mrs. Vivian and the amiable object of her more avowed solicitude,
the object of the sportive adoration of the irrepressible,
the ever-present Lovelock. They were constantly having parties in
the woods at this time--driving over the hills to points of interest
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